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COPHUGHT DEPOSE 



BELSHAZZAR 



W. C. DUMAS 




RICHARD G. BADGER 

THE GORHAM PRESS 
BOSTON 



Copyright 1912, by W. C. Dumas 
All Rights Reserved 



The Gorham Press. Boston, U. S. A. 



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&CLA327343 



BELSHAZZAR 



PERSONS OF THE PLAY 

Belshazzar The Last King of Babylon 

Nis-Bel A Babylonian Prince 

Seba A Captive Prince of Judah 

Daniel, A Prophet of the Jews, called Belte- 

shazzar 
Mishael, \ Wise Men of the Jews and Compan- 
Azariah, J ions to Daniel 

Arioch Captain of the Palace Guard 

Busalosser. .A Captain in the King's Army 
1st Seer 1 Soothsayers, and Priests of the God, 

3rd Seer J 

1st Priest ) Priests of the God Bel-Marduk 

2nd Priest J 

Madeline Daughter of Azariah, the Jew 

Nitrocris, Mother of Belshazzar, and Wife of 

King Nabonidus 
Others, Princes, satraps, soldiers, messengers, 

attendants, slaves, women, dancing girls, etc. 

The Action takes place in three nights and 
three davs 

The place— The City of Babylon. 



BELSHAZZAR 

ACT FIRST 

Scene First 

{Time — Night First Day. Scene shows the in- 
terior of the Temple of Hea, at Babylon. To the 
left is a massive altar of stone, upon which burn low 
blue flames. To the back, is the entrance or door- 
way, flanked by huge columns of stone between which 
is seen the sky, and a comet flaming over the city of 
Babylon. 

Two Chaldean seers stand beside the altar, with 
their arms red in the blood of the sacrifice. A third 
priest stands looking out between the columns towards 
the city.) 

1st Seer: — (At the Altar) 

"O spirit of heaven hear! 
Remember us, remember! 
spirit of the earth come near. 
Remember us, remember!" 

2nd Seer: — (At the Entrance) 

What meaneth these nightly signs of terror, 
these flashing and hissing stars sputtering from 
the vaulted blue over the Sar's palace? 

3rd Seer: — (Swinging his Censer) 

'Tis not clear yet. The meteor-god oft rides 

7 



8 BELSHAZZAR 

in his chariot of flame to fire your heavens for 
the doom of kings, trailing his fiery train far into 
the night. Thus the gods speak. 

2nd Seer: — (Coming towards the Altar) 

Pale flame, on Hea's altar, thou small counter- 
part of yon flaming star, another sacrifice thou 
requirest, a sacrifice of blood. 

1st Seer: — 

Yea, a sacrifice ere we know the awful sign of 
Elam's god. 

2nd Seer : — 

Must it be a sacrifice of blood? 

3rd Seer: — 

Yea, and on the altar of Hea. 

1st Seer: — 

Or in the city of the King. 

3rd Seer: — (Facing the Entrance) 

Look ye, where flames the flambeau of the gods. 
They speak thus only in dire necessity or unre- 
lenting anger. Some mortal, stronger than the 
herd, his brethren, hath defied high heaven's 
laws and dareth wish for himself those attributes 
too large for mortal man, bringing on the whole of 
humanity, the curses of the skies. Some thought 
anarchical, or some ambition growing in defiance 
to those heavenly decrees, seeks to usurp the 
prerogatives of the gods. So out of the primal void, 



BELSHAZZAR 9 

studded with yon golden drops, the hand which 
rules in the dominion of night and day, hath in 
anger launched forth that dread star to warn the 
daring that heaven tolerates no rival, nor changeth 
a decree. 

1st Seer: — 

Must there bleed ram or bullock, sheep or 
goat, on the altars of the gods? 

3rd Seer: — 

Man and woman, babe and old man, must 
drain out their warm red streams of life, below 
in the city of the King. 

Enter Nis-Bel 
(Stands just within the Entrance) 

1st Seer: — (Bowing) 

Heaven give thee might, and power, and happi- 
ness, and bright dreams, O glorious lord of war. 
Camest thou hither from Belshazzar, the great 
King? 

Nis-Bel : — (Haughtily) 

Nay, priest of Hea. I came for mine own pro- 
fit to seek the help of great Hea, determiner of 
destinies. 

2nd Seer: — 

What wouldst thou of Hea, Prince Nis-Bel? 

Nis-Bel: — 

A magic-knot with which to change a destiny. 



10 BELSHAZZAR 

3rd Seer: — (Descending from the Altar) 
Wherefore, Prince? 

Nis-Bel: — 
I love. 

2nd Seer: — 

Thinkest thou that those two words can change 
the course of events in their mighty flood and 
flux? 

Nis-Bel: — 

Priest, those words have done that, and more. 

3rd Seer: — 

Is it then to thine own confusion that thou 
lovest? 

Nis-Bel: — 

Yea, if ye give me not that charm that binds 
heart to heart, and makes them bee and flower. 
There is a maiden among the captives of Jewry, 
which great Nebuchadnezzar did lead unto 
Babylon, who has cleft my heart in twain. I am 
from the palace of the King, and hold power there, 
but over her I hold naught of power to make her 
love. Give me a magic-knot and a love-potion. 

1st Seer: — 

Holdest thou aught of power in the palace of 
the great Sar? 

Nis-Bel: — 



BELSHAZZAR 11 

Yea, much power and the ear of the King, priest 
of Hea. 

1st Seer: — 

Thy magic-knot then thou shalt have. 

Listen: — "Take a woman's linen kerchief, bind 
it round thy right hand; loose it from thy left 
hand: knot it with seven knots; do so thrice: 
sprinkle it with bright wine: bind it round thy 
hands and feet, like manacles and fetters. " 

Nis-Bel: — 

Is there aught else to make the charm good? 

1st Seer : — 

Do thou this in the secrecy of thy chamber, 
and fall asleep bound thus. The day's dawn will 
bring love to thee. 

Nis-Bel: — (Turning to go) 

The protection of the gods and the great King 
be thine. To thine own good, thou wilt see more 
anon of Nis-Bel, Prince of Babylon. 

(Exit Nis-Bel) 

2nd Seer: — 

Can there be thoughts of love on earth, when 
there is anger in the heavens? 

3rd Seer: — 

Love chooseth not its time, nor circumstance. 
(Pointing) Yet see, yonder still flashes the 
flaming star over the mounds and battlements of 



12 BELSHAZZAR 

Babylon. What it portends shortly we shall 
know. 

2nd Seer: — 

Yea! Great Hea doth to us unfold all that 
remains to man untold; give him this chain of 
gold. 

(As the curtain descends, the seers are occupied 
with their priestly rights.) 

CURTAIN. 



Act First 
Scene Second 



(Time, early morning of the following day. 
The scene shows a room in the prophet DanieVs 
house. The curtain rises on Madeline, who is 
standing alone at the window.) 

Madeline : — (At the window) 

The morn's sun seems good. He shines from 
God's high heaven thus, to renew that glorious 
promise of freedom, and is one that my people 
can call Friend. As he mounts upward, and 
blazes forth in splendor, smiling on me even as 
mUch as upon the King, I may call him Friend 
and Giver of Life with more truth than these 
Babylonians who prostrate themselves at his 
altar, and worship him in terror. Already, he 
hath painted the battlements and highest towers 
with light, and soon again will carry the morning 



BELSHAZZAR 13 

message of God to Canaan's people, even in their 
wretchedness. Now, the very dew-drops on 
yonder tree leap into life. (Pausing a moment) 
'Tis time Seba was with me, past time. 

Enter Seba 
(Turning joyously) A wee bit late? Yes? 

Seba : — 

Ah, my beloved ! A kiss ! 

(They embrace. Seba holds her from him and 
gazes at her troubled face.) What hath befallen? 
Are thy father and the prophet well? 

(They seat themselves) 

Madeline : — 

Yes, they are well. Father sleepeth, and dear 
old Daniel hath not yet returned from his morn- 
ing visit to his people. 'Tis not that, Seba. 
Scarcely did I sleep last night. (Seba starts) 
'Twas nothing, but my foolish fears, fears of the 
lonesome night. The lights in the skies flickered 
ghostily across my bed. Now the sun seems so 
cheerful. 

Seba : — 

Foolish fright with which to dim thy pretty 
eyes. 

Madeline: — 

My Seba, are they so dim? Aren't they bright 
for thee? 



14 BELSHAZZAR 

Seba : — ( Tenderly) 

Yea,, bright, but in their mysterious depths 
they hold a secret, perhaps a strange secret. 
Tell it unto thy Seba. Thou hast been thinking 
all through the long night when thou didst not 
sleep. (Troubled) Was Prince Nis-Bel in thy 
thoughts? How I envy him that place in the 
sanctuary of thy memory ! 

Madeline : — 

Thou only wast in that sanctuary last night, 
Seba, — no other. Thou doest me wrong to speak 
to me of the Prince. I have always tried to 
avoid him. Thou well knowest that as Belshaz- 
zar's ruler over this quarter of Babylon, he oft 
cometh hither on the King's mission to spy on 
God's people. 

Seba: — {Bitterly) 

Jehovah be my witness, but I hate the Babylon- 
ian; hear me, Madeline, I hate, hate him! I like 
not his face. 'Tis carved out of stone, the lines 
do not shift to and fro, and the mouth is set hard 
and fast. There is no responsive fire in his eye, 
ready to leap forth and greet thee as friend. He 
is much alone, and Madeline, too oft cometh he 
unto this house. This morn, ere I came hither, 
I saw him stalking through the King's garden 
towards the Golden Palace. He stopped, and 
meditated, started and stopped again, and turned 
his face towards Hea's temple as the sun rose in 
purple splendor above it. A lion fawned at his 
feet. He was less terrible than the face of Nis-Bel. 



BELSHAZZAR 15 

Madeline : — 

I fear the Prince, too. 

Seba: — 

Why then dost thou suffer Nis-Bel to come 
hither? Why doth the prophet permit the 
Babylonian to come within his gates? What 
thinketh thy father, the good Azariah, of Nis-Bel, 
Prince of Babylon? 

Madeline: — 

I cannot choose but see him, and Father Daniel 
cannot turn him out when he cometh in his in- 
sufferable pride, lest his balked desire and de- 
feated purposes kindle the fires of Belshazzar's 
hatred towards the Jews, and the King's hand is 
quick to smite. The Prince hath declared his 
love for me. (Seba starts) Nay, start not, my 
Seba, for I hate him even as thou. Yesterday, he 
came hither, and with all his hateful pride told 
me of his passion for me, declaring by his myriad 
gods a love as deathless as time itself. When I 
would not listen unto him, down upon his knees 
he fell, and begged my love. Seba, I inwardly 
rejoiced to see that prince there before me begging 
of the Jewess what she would not and could not 
give. May the God above forgive me for it, but 
then I wished that thou couldst have stricken 
him kneeling thus, him who tightens the fetters 
more about my people, and makes our bondage a 
hell. Then I laughed at him, kneeling thus be- 
fore me. Quickly again he was standing facing me 
and I shudder to think of what was written on 



16 BELSHAZZAR 

his face. Naught said he, but strode quickly 
out into the night. 

Seba : — 

I must watch over thee all the more closely. 
Enough! we will speak no more of Nis-Bel. For- 
give me, Madeline, forgive me for ever question- 
ing thy love. I will always love thee tenderly, 
tenderly — yes, fiercely, — I know not which; yes, 
both. 

Madeline : — 

Yet, I fear thy nature cannot trust me even 
as I would wish it, even as thou wouldst trust me 
if the world held no other man than thou. 

Seba: — 

Doubt me not. Thou art dearer to me than 
sleep, brighter than the noon-day sun reflected 
from the bastioned walls of the king's palace. 
{Playfully) Thou art so dear to me that I would 
lay bare this breast to the flashing sword, and by 
force take thee, even if thou didst sit a queen be- 
side Belshazzar on his throne of bronze. 

Madeline : — (Smiling) 

I doubt thee not, but set me here beside thee 
on this throne of wood. Cedar wood is better 
for thrones than bronze, when on it sits a man 
and beside him a woman to love. 

Seba : — 

Little black-eyed teaser, thy doubtful smiles of 



BELSHAZZAR 17 

raillery cut me not. I once truly was a prince, and 
the time will come, Madeline, when breaking 
away from these despised walls of Babylon,we 
will return again to those fair Judean fields where 
my father's father was King. There I will be 
King, and if thou so wishest it, thou canst then 
sit beside me on my throne of cedar wood. What 
a hope is that to treasure when it gives promise of 
freedom, peace, plenty, and love under Jehovah's 
smile, and not under the frown of Babylon's awful 
god. (Reminiscently) Always, it seems to me, 
have I loved thee, ere I saw the light from my 
mother's womb, in other worlds than this, — 
always, — even from the dawn of God's memory, 
and as the years gather and time grows old, will 
love thee unto the eve of His forgetting. 

Madeline : — 

After the night's gloom, 'tis good to sit thus 
in the light of His sun. It seems, Seba, that He 
smiles down upon us. 

Enter Daniel 
(Seba rises as Daniel enters) 

Daniel: — 

'Tis well, my children. May the God above 
always give you such peace. What a pretty 
picture you made, and now old Father Daniel 
hath spoiled it. 

Madeline : — 

Art thou weary? Come, seat thyself, and let 
me make thee comfortable. 



18 BELSHAZZAR 

Daniel: — (Seating himself) 

A little weary, child. I have travelled far 
through Babylon's streets already this morn, but 
saw none so happy as thou and Seba. 

Madeline: — 

My father yet sleepeth? 

Daniel: — 

Yea, he went not forth with me. Mishael and 
I left him sleeping lightly in his bed. He hath 
not been well of late, and his sleep seemed colored 
with the outer world. He tossed, and talked 
between his teeth. 

Madeline: — 
Oh, I do fear me ! 

Daniel: — 

Peace child, fret not thyself for here he cometh . 

Enter Azariah 
(Seba leads him to a cushioned seat) 

Azariah : — 

May the blessings of the day be upon you, my 
friends. (To Madeline) Come, a- kiss! 

Madeline: — (After greeting him) 
Art thou well, father? 

Azariah: — (Smiling contentedly) 

Yea, my child. (To Daniel) Thou wast early 
abroad? 



BELSHAZZAR 10 

Daniel: — 

We went forth early to see some of the brethren. 
At that time, the streets are clear, and when all 
else is awaking unto renewed life, this wicked city 
sleeps after its awful revels. 

Azariah : — 

These revels have increased of late since King 
Nabonidus went forth against the Persians and 
left Belshazzar to rule in Babylon. I have evil 
forebodings, prophet. (Seba starts, Madeline is 
frightened) I can feel what I cannot see, and 
the shadows of the palace extend their darkness 
over us. 

Seba: — 

Thou hast been unwell of late, and seest not 
things in their true light as is thy wont. 

Daniel : — 

Early, ere sunrise, the King's heralds were 
crying through the city, "Belshazzar hath for- 
bidden marriage among the young women of 
Babylon for a twelfth-month. " 

Seba : — (Quickly) 
Among us, too? 

Daniel : — 

It is expressly stated so. The herald cried, 
"Belshazzar, King of Babylon, forbids marriage 
to the maids of Babylon for the space of a twelfth 
month. This alike to the captive Hebrew and 



20 BELSHAZZAR 

the maids of Babylon, under penalty of death. 
Thus saith Belshazzar through his Captain, Nis- 
Bel." 

Seba : — 
Wherefore thinkest thou he commandeth this? 

Daniel: — 

The King hath a sinister purpose. 

Azariah : — 

Belshazzar also hath a sinister agent. The 
Prince doth oft visit at this house. He loveth 
my Madeline, but 'tis the calculating love of the 
serpent, and we dare say naught against him. 

Seba: — 

I dare it, and would face twice seven princes 
for thee, Madeline. 

Daniel : — (Rising) 

The Lord God, our Jehovah is greater than 
Babylon and Babylonian princes. Trouble not 
that heart of thine, good Azariah, but put thy 
trust in Him, who in the days gone by, did lead 
His people from Egyptian bondage back unto the 
land of their fathers. That He will do for us who 
abide now in Babylon. Come, Seba — ! 

(Exeunt Daniel and Seba) 

(Madeline rises and seats herself on a stool at her 
father s feet) 



BELSHAZZAR 21 

Madeline : — ( Tenderly) 

Didst thou suffer much last night, father? 
The prophet said that thou didst toss and moan 
in thy sleep. 

Azariah : — 

Nay, my child, I suffered not in my body, but 
my dreams were cast in lurid terror; I and thou, 
and all this household were driven to and fro 
through these streets and suffered at the hands 
of the King. 

Madeline : — 

Father, foolish father, to let such a dream 
trouble thee. Why dost thou not dream of some- 
thing good and harmless, or of brave men and 
pretty women, and not of blood? Father, next 
time dream of me; I will not frighten thee. 

Azariah : — {Continuing) 

I wish thou might know no more of man's 
wickedness than thou knowest now. Thou wast 
born in Babylon. Thy sire was then young. 
Thy mother fell and died at the King's nod, ere 
thou wast old enough to know her as mother. A 
rich heritage of hate is ours. 

Madeline : — 

Dear father, think of tomorrow and not of 
yesterday, for as young as I am, I know that 
there is where happiness lies. {Petulantly) Thou 
must not worry, for that is a sign of old age, and 
thou art not old; thou art young at seventy 
winters. 



%% BELSHAZZAR 

Azariah: — (Not heeding her) 

Madeline, thou must never see Nis-Bel, that 
arch-minion of Belshazzar, again. 

Madeline: — 

Father, I ne'er have wished to see the Prince, 
and I do fear him, but he comes hither to the 
quarters of the Jews on the King's mission, or hath 
that as an excuse for coming. To offend him, 
thou well knowest, would mean death to thee 
and me. 

Azariah: — (Rising wearily) 

Right art thou, my child. Mishael calls to 
prayer. When this life palls upon us and troubles 
come nameless and numberless, Jehovah above 
hath given His promise of emancipation to them 
who ask and take. 

(Exit Azariah) 

Madeline : — 

Belshazzar hath forbidden marriage to all the 
women of his empire. What monstrous purpose 
festers in his brain? Ah Jehovah, the blight of 
Assyria eats itself even to the hearts of thy 
wretched people! 

(Rises, goes again to the window, and stands 
there looking out) 

Enter Servant 

Servant : — 
My lady — 



BELSHAZZAR 23 

Madeline : — ( Turning) 

Why art thou so affrighted? Quick, what hath 
befallen ? 

Servant : — 

The terrible Prince is without and hath asked 
to see thee. He paused on the threshold, and I 
ran hither. 

Madeline: — 

Since it must be, show him hither. 

{Exit Servant) 
Things happen quickly after flaming stars. 

Enter Nis-Bel 
{An Ethiopian guard ranges itself just outside 
the door. Madeline has turned her face again to 
the window and is looking out upon the city) 

Nis-Bel: — {Stopping on the threshold) 

So fresh! so pure, too pure for Babylon! {Ad- 
vancing and speaking louder .) Madeline! Jewess! 
Behold Nis-Bel, Prince of Babylon who now hath 
come, not because it pleaseth Belshazzar to send 
him, but because thou hast drawn him unerringly 
hither by that invisible power which worketh in 
him, and maketh him obedient, who e'er now 
never obeyed god nor man. That power is latent 
in thy charm and beauty, but is more than beauty 
or enchantment. {Checking himself) Turnest 
thou then away? Many princesses of Mesopota- 
mia have there been who would have given their 
dearest possessions to mate with me, who now 



24 BELSHAZZAR 

offers thee power, wealth, and splendor in Baby- 
lon. 

(Pauses) 

Thou art virtually a slave; think what is offered 
thee. 

Madeline: — 

Speak not such words to me. 

Nis-Bel: — 

If gods gave me words, and power to image 
the pulsing mind's ebb and flow, I could speak 
more what I feel. 

Madeline: — 

Enough ! I will not listen to thee, proud prince. 
Thy people are not mine; thy gods are not mine. 
I could never love man or prince who comes 
among us only to bind the fetters tighter; whose 
only purpose in doing all which he does is to gain 
favor in the eyes of his royal master, the King, 
and who has this day cried through the streets of 
Babylon a proclamation making us women no 
better than herded swine to be bought and sold, 
when he of the Purple Robe says, "I will it so." 
Thou speakest falsehood when thou say est " Love," 
and profanest the most sacred thing between 
man and woman. Love can never enter that 
breast reserved for haughtiness and lust. 

Nis-Bel:— (Coldly) 

Cease! Thy anger spoils thy pretty face. If 
thou wast noble and mighty thou couldst talk 






BELSHAZZAR 25 

and babble thus, but the weak should ne'er raise 
his voice in Babylon. My Ethiops await me 
without. Swarthy are they, and obedient, and 
this finger wears the signet of the King. 

Madeline: — 

Thou insultest the name of Man. 

Nis-Bel : — (Haughtily) 

He who holds power is Man. 

Madeline : — 

He who honors woman is Man. Wouldst thou 
be the first to break the law of thy King, by de- 
manding me in marriage? Wherefore? 

(Enter Azariah and stands unnoticed) 

Nis-Bel : — (Cruelly) 

I loved thee then. Thou hast spurned my 
proffered love, putting lightly aside the rich tiara 
of a Babylonian satrap, and because of thy pride 
of race, scorn to mate with a son of Mesopotamia. 
I hate thy tribe; I am strong; mind lest thou lose 
the name of maid. 

Madeline : — 
Devil! 

Azariah : — (Advancing) 
What meaneth this, Prince? 

Nis-Bel: — (Brushing him aside) 

Much. (To Madeline) Yes, devil! if all the 



26 BELSHAZZAR 

world were like thee, Nis-Bel would lust for 
humanity. 

Azariah : — 

Wretch! since that is not so, what? 

Nis-Bel : — {Haughtily) 
I hate the Jew. 

{Re-enter Seba and stands listening on the threshold) 

Azariah : — {Frantically) 
Out, get thee out ! 

Nis-Bel: — 

Not so fast. Must I take orders from a con- 
quered Canaanite? May Marduk blast me first! 
Old man, Jew, listen. I, Nis-Bel, Prince in Baby- 
lon, demand of thee, thy daughter. If thou 
withholdest thy consent, I will take her by force 
and place her in the slave mart to be the butt for 
lascivious jest, and the desire of wanton eyes. 
Look you, where the Ethiops stand. {Points to 
door) 

Seba: — {Facing Nis-Bel) 

I am Prince Seba of Judah. Thou hadst best 
fear me, thou and thy Ethiops. Thy finger 
weareth the signet of the King, and thy master 
yonder in the Golden Palace, this morn, issued a 
proclamation concerning all the women of Babylon. 
To transgress the King's law is death, whether 
prince or devil. Thou art a Babylonian, and 
know Assyria's laws. 



BELSHAZZAR 27 

Nis-Bel: — (Raising arm to strike) 
Hebrew dog ! 

Seba: — (Placing arm around Madeline) 

By thy god, Assliur, thou nor thy mighty lord 
can harm this prince of Judah, and his Madeline ! 

Nis-Bel : — 

Thy words are not dead. They will live as long 
as memory, and at last, envenomed return to thee. 
Thou art playing with a blazing brand which will 
shrivel thee and thine like a green leaf. 

Seba : — 

A Babylonian threat, nothing more. Hast thou 
never watched a bubble floating on the surface of 
a stream, dancing, and sparkling, and proud in 
its colored glory? Then it cometh to a whirl-pool, 
and there is a tossing to and fro, and the bubble is 
no more, — burst in its tossing glory. Thou art 
even as the bubble, Prince, and mind lest thou 
approachest a whirling vortex, lest soon into 
another world thou goest to swell the hosts of 
hell. 

Nis-Bel: — 

Words to be repented of after thine own fashion, 
and thy religion hath taught thee the easiest 
ways of repentance. Thou wilt need them. 
(Exit Nis-Bel) 

Azariah : — 

My son, my son, I thank thee. Look after her, 
while I rest. (Exit Azariah) 



28 BELSHAZZAR 

Seba: — (Seating Madeline beside him) 

Rest; be calm. Let me brush back this raven 
strand from thy brow. Forget him, Madeline, 
and live for love in love's moments. Earth is 
gone when thou art near, for art thou not dearer 
than aught else earth-born? 

Madeline : — 

Seba, I fear for thee that some harm might befall 
thee. I was so happy this morn, and now 
that shameless Prince hath plunged me from 
gleam to gloom. 

Seba : — (With forced gaiety) 

Words are naught in Babylon, and sooner 
would I credit with truth these insensate gods of 
stone silently sitting with their hands upon their 
knees, than the tongue of a King's captain, who 
nightly doth weaken himself with wine and revel. 
Such parasites, who the aspiring fain do call 
princes, make threats, feel pangs of lust and envy, 
but ne'er have fangs to strike. 

Madeline : — 

But thou wilt care for thyself even as thou 
wouldst care for me? 

Seba : — (Rising) 

Yea! Now I must leave thee until the eve. 

Madeline : — 

And wilt thou go so soon from me to earth 
again? 



BELSHAZZAR 29 

Seba : — 

Come ! quickly, another kiss ! 

(Exit Seba) 

Madeline : — 

Seba, my Seba, what hatred hast thou drawn 
upon thyself? 

(CURTAIN) 



ACT SECOND 

Scene First 

(Time, late morning. The scene is in the Hang- 
ing Gardens of Babylon, on the seventh terrace. 
Nis-Bel enters followed by a slave leading the lion, 
held in leash. During the following speech, the 
slave is occupied with the lion.) 

Nis-Bel: — (To the Slave) 

Here we stop. Here I await the King. 

Thou, and the beast there. In faith, I am as 
restless as he, and having experienced what I 
have, am now as fierce, and my nature hath 
awakened anew to those primal desires, and my 
mind is fecund with teeming plots to surpass gods 
and man in deed and daring. Watch thou for 
King Belshazzar, and tell me ere he cometh. 

Slave: — 

Yea, I will watch and tell thee. 

Nis-Bel: — (Pacing to and fro) 

Hea's seer lied. My magic-knot was as im- 
potent of good and evil as dreams are. So much 
for the infallibility of the priests ! (Snaps fingers) 
The Jewess' love, fie! Magic-knots, fine words, 
fancy phrases, plumings and struttings, and such 
30 



BELSHAZZAR 31 

stuff, cannot, it seems, gain any love of any 
woman, much less a Jewess' : 'tis different when 
all is clothed and disguised in a lying garb of 
sweet suggestions, subtle hopes now blasted, now 
renewed, and never kept. The path to love is 
roundabout. The animal hath been awakened in 
me, and his fangs bite, and gnaw, and spur me to 
act. A devil schooled in the ways of the world, 
and rich in his stored experience gained there- 
from, is a thousand times better, I take it, than a 
pretty angel flapping around on gaudy wings, and 
although good, knoweth little of good for lack 
of contrast with a dusky demon. I hate such! 
(Pauses) Yea, I have it. I, the devil, she, the 
angel, the King in his palace, boasting majesty 
and power and having none; the Persian without 
the walls, — what a combination! They, — nay, 
we, — all have different passions, good and bad, 
and I, by combination of these, must play the 
magician, and take advantage of time and circum- 
stance to heal the wound made by a Jew. Yet, 
'tis strange that I should think a moment on her, 
but 'tis true. She repulsed me, spat, worse than 
all else despised and spurned me before her own 
vile Israelitish kinsmen. (Paces silently) Seba 
has, by his own acts, executed his whole tribe 
already. Prince Seba they call him; Prince only 
in her eyes. May the gods blast him; may Istar 
deliver him for revenge to the gods and the King. 
How? Easily. I answer myself. What are 
queen mothers good for except to steer ships of 
state upon shoals and into shallows? The jacket 
is ready made to my purpose like old Nahum's 



32 BELSHAZZAR 

second hand clothes, and only needs fitting to 
time and circumstance. 

Slave : — (Calling) 

Master, one cometh striding apace. 

Nis-Bel: — 

The King? 

Slave: — 

A warrior, and alone. 

Nis-Bel: — 

A warrior? Quite suitable, but most strange 
in this time. 

Enter Busalosser 

'Tis war without the walls to south and west; 
why then, captain, dost thou strut, and plume 
thyself here among flowers? 

Busalosser : — 

I seek the King to know his will. He hath left 
the palace and walks in his gardens, and hither I 
have come to find him. True, I should be with 
Nabonidus before the walls of Borsippa, but I 
obey the strange commands of a strange King, 
and remain captain of his reserve forces. This 
inactivity palls upon me, and I would rather face 
Cyrus and the Persian, than wander about among 
flowers seeking a king. 

Nis-Bel: — 

In sooth, a strange King. He needs must 



BELSHAZZAR 33 

choose a wife, and cannot fight until another time, 
while his father goeth forth to fight for the glory 
of Babylonia. By the gods, fighting is a safer 
pastime! Yea, captain, hear me, the quest of 
woman is more fatal to man than war. The King, 
he is soft and vacillating. Can he be moulded? 

Busalosser: — 

Like wax. (Brushes against the lion which 
snarls) Is't thy brute? Magnificent! (Starts 
away) Prince, soon again, I'll crave thy com- 
pany. 

Nis-Bel: — 

Nay, stay! I also await the King. 

Busalosser: — 

He lingers in idle dalliance among his women, 
and needs must have his bath, ere the battle. 
(Pointing) Yonder now he cometh with the 
dam, who scarce hath weaned him. 

(Enter Belshazzar, Nitrocris, Arioch, Slaves, 
and Attendants) 

Nis-B el : — (Kneeling) 

Great King! The bounds, vast and wide of his 
empire, and of his rule, may he enlarge, and may 
he complete. 

Busalosser : — (Kneeling) 

Glorious Prince! Holding over all kings supre- 
macy, and royalty, and empire, may he attain to 
gray hairs and old age. 



34 BELSHAZZAR 

Belshazzar: — 
Rise, Prince and Captain. 

(To Nitrocris) 

Mother, look you down those pillared vistas, 
shining in the sun; look you, at the battlements 
far beyond, enclosing my temples, my palaces, 
and my city of jasper. Is't not enough glory to be 
King over this? 

Nitrocris: — 

Yea, Belshazzar, but to be jointly King with 
thy father, Nabonidus, is not to claim thy full 
share of glory. Thou shalt and must be pre- 
eminent among kings. Even when a child, I 
sought to teach thee to feel thyself far above 
others of thy race. Jealously did I watch thee, 
in thy development, watch the awakening of 
feelings of superiority in thee; and when once 
playing here in this garden, thy nurse crowned 
thee with a tiara of roses, and chid thee because 
thou didst wish her laurel wreath too: how my 
mother's heart did throb with joy to see thee 
rise in thy childish anger, dash under thy feet the 
roses, and take the laurel wreath, and wear it as 
thy diadem ! From then, even until this moment 
I have watched without ceasing thy development, 
and now thou must rule alone over thy rightful 
realm. 

Belshazzar: — 

Mother, King Nabonidus, co-ruler with me, is 
thy husband, and lord over thee, and me, and 
Babylon. 



BELSHAZZAR 35 

Nitrocris: — 

I do not wish to call him husband, though I am 
bound as such to him. Thou art young and 
majestic, and will yet see many years of life, 
ruling among thy people. Nafconidus is old; his 
days are nearly spent. Soon he faces the Persian 
hosts on the plains, while thou and I rule within 
the walls. 

Belshazzar: — 
Arioch ! 

Arioch : — (Advancing) 
Thy commands? 

Belshazzar: — 

Send away the slaves, the women and the 
soldiers. Set a guard at the terrace steps. Un- 
troubled, and alone, we wish to enjoy the glory 
of the morning, which Asshur, my lord, hath 
given us. Stay Nis-Bel, and thou, Busalosser. 

(Exeunt Arioch, slaves, etc.) 

(To Nitrocris) Thou wast saying, "Thou and 
I rule within the walls." 

Nitrocris:— 

Hast thou no ambition, nor longings for a 
peerless throne, no wish to be next in power to 
high heaven? Art thou blind? Is the way not 
clear? Wilt thou always abandon thyself to 
inaction? 



36 BELSHAZZAR 

Belshazzar : — {Slowly) 

Nay, the way is not yet clear: but why should 
I bear the burden of inaction? What would hap 
if I cast it aside? 

Nitrocris: — 

Dare to cast it aside, and see. Dost thou wish 
to lord it alone over Tigris and Euphrates, and 
make the whole world kiss thy feet? It can be 
done. Marduk smiles now on thee, and bids thee 
grasp the sword to hold the sceptre, peerless, alone, 
all-powerful, over thy people. 

Belshazzar: — 

Queen, I catch thy drift. Execution is the 
same as understanding with Belshazzar, Prince 
of Babylon. (Rises and paces) I will increase 
Babylonia's power, already great, crush Cyrus 
and his Persians, become king over all the four 
zones of the sun, the marcher over the whole 
world, thy supreme hero. Great Marduk, hear 
me swear it ! 

Nis-Bel: — (To Busalosser) 

A brave resolve. The sun will wink in shame, 
and hide his face behind a cloud, helpless and 
impotent, in the presence of such power, and his 
heaven- wide fields will be a mere satrapy to yield 
homage to Belshazzar. Forsooth, the mighty 
powers of the sky have a rival in Belshazzar, 
whom his mother hath reared to be a wild-dog 
among kings. 



BELSHAZZAR 37 

Nitrocris : — ( To Belshazzar) 

Truly, in that resolve, thou art my son. When, 
by thy cruelty, thou eclipse dead Asshur-bani-pal 
of Ninevah, then will I know that truly thou art 
my son. 

Belshazzar: — 

Shame on thee, queen, to think that I meant 
aught of harm to my father when I resolved to 
shine as a mighty warrior, and a glorious prince. 
If the fortunes of battle bear him down, an equal 
with other rotting flesh and marrowless bones, 
then Belshazzar will not mourn his father, because 
he fell fighting for the glory of his country, but 
in thy wishes and ambitious plans, thou wouldst 
deny me the right to love. 

Nitrocris : — 

Kings should feel no ties of kinship to bind, 
and gall, and make them weak. Ere it be too 
late, catch opportunity's golden pollen-grains 
flying around thee. 

Belshazzar: — 

Whatever my weakness or strength is, let it 
never be said that I plotted my father's death, 
or overthrow. Queen, it shall not be. I'll not 
do that e'en if I do wish it done. My road to 
power lies roundabout, although the short way 
over a father's grave beckons to me. 

Nis-Bel: — (To Busalosser) 

Mother and son bartering words for a silver 



38 BELSHAZZAR 

sceptre. Nis-Bel also hath a temptation for the 
King, and 'tis so sugared over that he will bite, 
and swallow, and ne'er suspect. 

Busalosser: — (To Nis-Bel) 
Still, they wrangle. 

Nitrocris: — 

Pardon thy mother, Belshazzar. There is 
promise of nobleness in thy heart which I did not 
plant there. 'Tis well, yet listen a little further 
to thy mother, and thou wilt not treat these words 
lightly, nor fail to act on her advice. Belshazzar, 
thou art not queened. Concubines, poor, painted, 
brainless flesh and blood hast thou a plenty, but 
there is none to call herself queen to Belshazzar, 
King. Bethink thyself on the continuity of thy 
line. 

Belshazzar: — 

I have thought of that, too. Already hath a 
proclamation gone forth through Babylon's streets 
forbidding marriage to all maidens until I have 
chosen a queen. 

Nitrocris: — 

Yet thou art too luke-warm in thy purpose. 

Belshazzar : — (Angrily) 

Baal's spilt blood! wilt thou nag me to wrath? 
Tomorrow, I choose a wife. 

Nis-Bel : — (Aside) 

'Tis now my time to crave his ear. 



BELSHAZZAR 39 

(Advance Nis-Bel) 
Glorious Prince, grant me a word. 

Belshazzar: — 
Speak, Prince Nis-Bel. 

Nis-Bel : — (Abruptly) 
Who ruleth in Babylon? 

Belshazzar : — (Angered) 

Jackal! save thy snarls for others than Bel- 
shazzar. 

Nis-Bel: — 

Be not angered, great Sar. Blunt am I, and 
unused to choose, and juggle my words, and by 
saying one thing make them mean another. 
Answer thou my question, I beg thee, King, 
and soon I think I may be of service to thee. 

Belshazzar: — 

I brook thy bluntness, but I wish no game of 
the fox, no methods of sly deceit, no hidings of 
motives, no fencings in secret. The glory of 
Babylon is in the might of her King. That thou 
well knowest. 

Nis-Bel: — 

Yea, that I know, but who rules in Babylon, in 
its palaces and its temples? 

Belshazzar: — 

Belshazzar and Bel-Marduk, Kings of earth and 
heaven. 



40 BELSHAZZAR 

Nis-Bel: — (Cunningly) 

Belshazzar rules on earth, but some say Jeho- 
vah is lord of heaven. 

Belshazzar : — 

Some say? Who? Let him who says it be- 
ware. Prince, be thou plain spoken. Anger me 
no further by thy riddles, and thy questions of 
indirection. 

Nis-Bel: — 

Then to the point, like the arrow to the mark. 
Beware, the Jew and the Jew's God. 

Belshazzar: — 

What secret against the throne knowest thou 
thus to prate about the hapless Jew and his help- 
less God? What knowest thou, Busalosser, who 
looketh so darkly and holdeth thine own counsels? 

Nis-Bel: — 

Naught against thee have I heard plainly spoken, 
yet O King, if thou art not pitiless towards 
those wolves and dogs of Canaan, thy proud 
purple will trail in the dust, leaving thee less 
than me, Nis-Bel, Prince of thy House. 

Busalosser: — 

Naught know I against thee or thy throne. 
Yet, Cyrus of Persia hath encamped himself on 
the plains over against Borsippa, and it may be 
that Babylon had best bestir herself from this 
inaction, and collect her cohorts and her squa- 
drons to oppose him. 



BELSHAZZAR 41 

Belshazzar: — (To Nis-Bel) 

Why then dost thou talk to me of Jews, letting 
the very name slip off thy tongue, as if it had 
power to affright me? Prince, these Jews are 
captives. Did not my grandsire, Nebuchadnez- 
zar, the marcher over the whole world, humble 
them? Kissed they not my father's feet? 

(Enter messengers in hot haste, Arioch and the 
Ethiopian guard following) 

Belshazzar : — ( To Arioch) 

Is this the way that thou and thy Ethiops keep 
the gate? 

Arioch : — 

The tidings are of life and death, O King. Hear 
the messengers escaped from a field reeking with 
blood. 

Belshazzar: — (To 1st Messenger) 

The King's presence demands serenity. 

1st Messenger: — (Kneeling) 

The demands of the moment will not permit 
it, great Sar. The Persian hosts have overborne 
Babylonia's cohorts in battle. The slaughter 
was fearful, and on that sodden battlefield before 
Borsippa, arms and armor floated in our blood 
like drift-wood in the spring time on Tigris' 
angry waters; their war-chariots, bearing down our 
men and horses, crushed thousands of bleeding 
bodies, making of that fair field a sea of blood. 



42 BELSHAZZAR 

Thy cohorts were in full flight when I sped 
hither. 

(Retires) 

Belshazzar: — 

The King of Persia victorious! He will not 
find Belshazzar's hosts so easily terrified when he 
marches towards Babylon's walls. 

(To 2nd Messenger) And thou? 

2nd Messenger: — (Kneeling) 
Dire news, King. 

Belshazzar : — (Quickly) 

Liveth my sire, now? Escaped he from the 
battle into the walled city? 

2nd Messenger: — 

King Nabonidus, thy sire, hath fled to Borsippa 
sorely wounded. He was smitten through the 
breast and scarcely breathes. I slipped around 
that vast host, far to the north, and came hither. 

(Bows and Retires) 

Belshazzar: — 

My father dying! A wish rises up in me, a 
wish hard to kill; ambition beckons, and bids me 
rejoice when my heart should be most sad, and 
the natural bond between son and father is well- 
nigh eaten in twain by gnawing worms bred from 
this unnatural circumstance. Oh, I wish I could 
wish otherwise! How hard must a heart be to 
become petrified towards a father's love? When 



BELSHAZZAR 43 

the chance for absolute power was so remote, 
how strong was I then to protect the King from 
his wife's unholy intrigue. Now, the terror of 
the wish! What wish? The gods grant Naboni- 
dus life, though Belshazzar wish it otherwise. 
And thou to urge me thus, must I still call thee 
mother? Canst thou feel no pity for him yonder 
dying, who mated with thee to produce such a 
creature as I? Canst thou not pity thy son who 
is torn so within by love for him and lust for 
glory? 

Nitrocris: — 

Pity! Terror! Art thou a man? Look at thy 
purple robe. Give it to thy slave, and he will 
wear it as well as thou. Clutch unto thyself the 
power which the gods have given to thee. Nor 
grief, nor sorrow, feel I for the wounded King, 
when by his death thou wilt be exalted. 

Enter 3rd Messenger 

3rd Messenger: — (Kneeling) 

O King, thy father is dead, and the Persian is 
without thy gates. From the southern walls, 
far in the distance, one sees the nodding plumes 
of his hosts, his burnished armor flashing in the 
sun, hears his rolling drums and blaring trumpets, 
and the thunder of his brazen cars. From the 
east, appear the black battalions, the gorgeous 
plumes of Elam's horse, risen up against thee. 

(Retires) 



44 BELSHAZZAR 

Belshazzar : — (Rising) 

My father dead! Arioch! proclaim Belshaz- 
zar supreme in Babylon, hang the temples in the 
royal purple, crown his statues with the laurel 
wreath, and ring forth through his streets the 
news that Babylon will soon return to her days of 
glory. (Arioch bows) A new sun hath risen. I 
will scatter the Persian host like chaff before the 
wind, and drive them howling back into their 
Aryan wilds. Mother, thou art a great prophet. 

Nis-Bel: — 

Think on thy thousands lying slaughtered; 
think on the homes within thy empire which this 
morn are desolate; think on the spilt blood of thy 
best warriors, and the purple blood of thy sire: 
think on these, O King, and prepare thy revenge. 
The Jew's God hath done this. 

Belshazzar: — 

Prince, still dost thou speak of the Jew's 
Jehovah. If thou so wishest it, thou hast full 
rein. Speak, where doth heaven touch the 
King? 

Nts-Bel: — 

High and mighty is Jehovah. The Jew says, 
"Let Bel-Marduk and Asshur tremble." There 
is not war among men alone, O King, but the very 
gods contend in high heaven for supremacy in 
Mesopotamia, and at night their battle fields of 
the sky flame and flare with the crimson of war. 
Thou, too, hast thy part in these battles of the 



BELSHAZZAR 45 

sky, by lending thy aid to the gods in thy city, 
Babylon. 

There is a Judean Prince among the captive 
Jews called Seba, if I mistake not his name. He 
is noble, as I take it, in naught except name, and 
as report hath it, holdeth secret communication 
with Cyrus of Persia. This prince, — 

Belshazzar : — (Angrily interrupting) 

Within the hour, flay the skin from the body, 
and salting his wounds, hang him before the temple 
of Asshur, my lord. Belshazzar now ruleth over 
Babylon. 

Nis-Bel : — (Cunningly) 

Yet more, O King; there is more to be heard from 
the lips of thy servant, Nis-Bel. The death of 
Seba alone will avail thee naught. Strike at the 
supremacy of Jehovah, who didst make thy grand- 
sire eat the grass and herbage of the fields. Let 
the flaying be general; take both man and woman, 
young and old, that not a seed of that cursed 
race live to sprout and grow in Babylonia; and 
let thy anger the harder smite the seers and wise 
men of Canaan. Bel-Marduk glories and gloats 
in blood, and Asshur will smile on thee in the 
gory shambles of that wretched people. 

Belshazzar: — 

'Tis well, what thou hast said; 'tis well and 
meet. See thou to it. More of that, anon. 
What, ho! 

Enter l$i Messenger 



46 BELSHAZZAR 

Arioch : — (Loudly) 
Give way ! 

Messenger : — (Breathless) 

From the fields of Assyria, triumphant a 
second Persian host comes towards Babylon's 
walls. Thrice a thousand war-chariots fill the 
sky with dust. The glitter of their bronze hath 
blinded my eyes. They march, apace, great 
King, against thee. 

(Retires) 

Belshazzar: — 

Come all the lords of all the earth. Belshazzar 
will welcome them. Busalosser! 

Nitrocris: — (Quickly to Busalosser) 

Stay! (To King) Ere thou, who art now 
king supreme and wifeless, march forth against 
the Persian, bethink thyself of the continuity of 
thy line. See if Jewry or Babylonia hold a mate 
for thee. 

Belshazzar: — (Impatiently to Queen) 

That will be on the morrow. (To Busalosser) 
Busalosser, assemble the flower of Babylon in 
thy ranks, organize new cohorts, draw thy soldiers 
from the youth of the city, drain her very blood 
if need there be, for the glory of Belshazzar. With 
thy army, and the best of thy captains, face the 
Persian army on the plains. Soon I will join thee. 
Go! and lose not a moment under penalty of 
death. 

(Exit Busalosser) 



BELSHAZZAR 47 

Thou, Nis-Bel, with my soldiers of the palace 
prepare a torture of death for the Jews. Naught 
shall now oppose me. Now art thou answered 
when thou askest, "King, who rules in Babylon?" 

Nis-Bel: — 

Not a Jew will breathe within the circle of thy 
walls at the setting of the morrow's sun. 

Belshazzar: — (Rising to go) 

Come, mother! Thou art now greatest in the 
land. (Exeunt all but Nis-Bel) 

Nis-Bel: — 

The ready made garment of circumstance fits 
the King to my purpose. Power in Babylon! 
Babylonia's power perished with Nabonidus be- 
fore the gates of Borsippa. An acorn shell could 
hold a well of water sooner than Belshazzar an 
hour of power. He is a child, a woman, follows 
my lead like the hound the stag, and all the while 
thinks he is commanding. And the Jew; he 
makes me laugh. Prince Seba will flay well; his 
hide is so loose. Madeline, thou must lie once 
with a prince of Babylonia, ere thou die. (To Lion) 
Come! (Exit) 

(CURTAIN) 



Act Second 
Scene Second 



(Time, morning of second day. The scene shows 
a street in Babylon. Present Arioch and Seba) 



48 BELSHAZZAR 

Arioch : — 

Good morrow, prince. Thou truly art the only 
one inside the walls whom I do fain call Prince or 
Friend. 

Seba : — 

And thou art the only friend I have away from 
my people. 'Tis strange that I should so love 
thee who was born in Mesopotamia, yet Arioch, 
I hold thee right noble, and far above thy people, 
and thy King. 

Arioch : — 

I am not of Mesopotamia. The buffetings of 
chance brought me hither from the plains of 
Arabia. Chance, Prince, is the creature of 
Destiny, leading one round-about, only at last to 
guide him where he more quickly would have 
gone had he been free. So, one day Belshazzar 
saw me, and took a strange fancy to me. He 
made me captain of his palace guard; he placed 
me in command of his household; and he, in his 
restful moments, unfolded to me the innermost 
secrets of his breast, chiding me that I did not 
applaud, and threatening me when I dared 
oppose some dear plan which he wished to carry 
out. I neyer trembled, but always in the splendor 
of his court, there seemed to be something held 
above me, some suspended doom at any moment 
ready to drop. What is written will be, so I 
feared not the King. Of late, a change hath come 
over him, a fearful change. 



BELSHAZZAR 49 

Seba : — 

What, my friend? Never before was thy face 
so dark. 

Arioch : — 

The blood-thirst of a long line of Assyrian and 
Babylonian kings hath awakened in his breast. 
A lust for glory, and a self-conscious power make 
a monster of Belshazzar. Nis-Bel hath the 
King's ear; Queen Nitrocris prostitutes her 
heaven-born attribute of mother to the unlawful 
exaltation of her son. He is supreme now since 
the great battle on the plain, and I have heard 
from the King's lips words to make any man 
hate Babylon. 

Seba : — 

Where ever lived a man who loved Belshazzar? 

Arioch : — 

This morn, unto the seventh green terrace of 
his garden, he came with the queen mother to 
breathe the morning air. Here the Prince Nis- 
Bel gained his ear, and straightway he sent all 
away, me with the rest. While I strode through 
that garden splendid with poppies and sweet with 
nard, thinking of my fair land of Arabia, there 
came in haste four messengers, all covered with 
blood, and demanded the ear of the King. They 
brought tidings of defeat to King Nabonidus. 
Belshazzar's father was slain. Then the King 
arose in anger, blood suffused his face, and he 
proclaimed himself supreme. Straightway he 



50 BELSHAZZAR 

charged Nis-Bel to smite, and spare not thy 
people, the Jews. I know not why they have 
thus angered him, but Nis-Bel had had the ear 
of the King. 

Seba : — 

Great God of Israel! the reason is plain, too 
plain to me. Gave he power into the hands of 
the Prince? 

Arioch : — 

Yea, all power within the city hath been given 
unto the Prince. His face was lighted with the 
fires of satisfaction, and his eyes danced and 
gloated. 

Seba: — (Slowly) 

Friend, I understand. His jealousy and hate 
have fired thy mounds and shrines, O Babylon, and 
thy temples, thy shrines, and thy hills of stone 
are senseless earth and helpless, mere baubles 
in the eyes of Jehovah. Arioch, I fear not for 
my people. Listen, friend! There is one among 
them for whose safety I do fear. She is betrothed 
to me, and Nis-Bel 's eyes have fastened them- 
selves upon her, and Nis-Bel's hate, grown out of 
a thwarted love, has doomed her; and in that 
doom of his he includes Seba, Prince of Judah. 
Arioch, wilt thou aid me against the Prince? 

(Going) 

Arioch: — 

Seba, to my uttermost. 



BELSHAZZAR 51 

Seba: — 
Thank thee, captain, and friend. 

(Exit Seba) 

Arioch : — (Sadly, moving of ) 

A beautiful faith is his in Jehovah, his God; 
but never will he return with his people to Jerusa- 
lem's empty streets : never will he see his flocks and 
herds grazing on Canaan's green hills: never will 
he love his Madeline there amid roses and voices 
of song. Would to his great God that his faith 
could prove the conquerer! The King hath 
nodded and in his demon's work, Nis-Bel will 
never swerve, but make the torture a devil's hell. 
After tomorrow, I, far away from fair Arabia, will 
be alone in Babylon, while he, bleeding, goes to 
leave my solitude a solitude indeed. 

(Enter Nis-Bel) 

Nis-Bel : — (Haughtily) 

Stay, Captain! Why dost thou linger in the 
streets, and wander aimlessly about wearing that 
funereal face fit to make the devil weep, when 
even now the King ccdls loudly for thee? Thy 
Ethiops murmur. 

Arioch : — ( Turning) 

Let Belshazzar call, and call in vain. Kings, 
even as we of humbler blood, have wishes far 
from their grasp, and perchance some day he will 
need me and my Ethiops more than now. Love 
hath demands on a true man's time before kings. 



52 BELSHAZZAR 

Nis-Bel: — 

Is't possible? Love? Once, I, towards whom 
thou showest such contempt, thought even as 
thou. Love? 'Tis not strange. It is the same 
with bird and beast as with man and woman. 
Such was mine, and I have slight faith in it, and 
less in that of others. Belie vest thou that one can 
love except when he seeth the one whom he loveth? 
Believest thou that the peacock would not love the 
pheasant, if the pea-hen flew away? 

Arioch: — 

Such natures as thine are as false as lies them- 
selves. 

Nis-Bel: — 

Nay, true as truth itself. The sword, captain, 
makes nations crimson, and we wail out our con- 
demnation to the skies, but how many men's 
souls are lost through a woman's eyes, how many 
lives are held by a tress of hair? Arabian, they 
are unknown and unnumbered. 

Arioch : — 

Love, — a true love, — hath arguments stronger 
than words for the rights of man and woman. 

Nis-Bel: — 

Old Dark-face, thy arguments are sadly awry. 
'Tis well as long as all is flowers, but when the 
rose is withered there is found the thorn. Listen, 
thou, to my philosophy. On love's many tongues, 
thou canst not distinguish a vaunt from a vow; 



BELSHAZZAR 58 

her vermillion dawns promise dark and wretched 
eves; her faithful vow hath a triple meaning; 
her honey is most bitter when thought to be most 
sweet. 

Arioch : — 

How knowest thou? Whence thy philosophy? 

Nis-Bel: — 

From life, wherefrom I draw my bitterness. 

Arioch : — 

Why tellest thou me these things? 
When I look on thee, tempted am 
I to mock the folly of man's pride. 

Nis-Bel : — {Cynically) 

Mock, well mock. This world is made for 
mocking when I mock the King, and thou me. 
Listen to my mockery, listen! The King hath 
had a dream. The weak never sleepeth well, 
but like the child dreams. When such weaklings 
dream, mark you, always do they think it be- 
tokens something of moment to them. Folly 'tis 
to think the gods care enough for any man alive 
to warn him of dangers unseen, while he sleepeth. 
Yea, the King hath had a dream, and calls loudly 
for his seers. He wishes an interpretation. 
That's funny for a strong man. 'Twould be fit 
for an Ethiop to ask, but in a King, 'tis folly. 
How funny man is! He must make perpetual 
merriment for the gods. 



54 BELSHAZZAR 

Arioch : — 

'Tis dreams, always dreams, that worry us. 
Babylon is more human in her sleep. 

Nis-Bel : — (Going) 

Thou of the dismal face, confound humanity 
with the things of the sky. They are separate; 
priests always lie; so even now, I go to see them 
on a mission for the King. Farewell, Dolor! 
(Exit Nis-Bel) 

Arioch: — (Looking after him) 

Self-centred! who is more happy, he or I? By 
the sword, by the torture, by taking from him 
sweet liberty, doth man punish man. The gods 
decree otherwise, and give a too long life as their 
punishment; life with the twin brethren, Loneliness 
and Memory. Ah! one could covet sweet death, 
and perchance have to live, but as ever I must 
answer to the King. (Going) . 
(CURTAIN) 



Act Second 
Scene Third 



(Early night of the third day. Interior of temple 
of Hea. Fires are burning on the altar, and at 
first the stage is vacant) 

Enter Nis-Bel 

Nis-Bel: — (Looking around) 

They call this sanctuary. Well, I broke into 



BELSHAZZAR 55 

the sanctuary to seed the priests against the King. 
It must be done with infinite tact, for priests 
love to deceive themselves, and exalt themselves 
in their heaven-given duties. (With a sweep of 
the hand) Here's where I obtained my magic 
knot, with which to gain the love of the Jewess. 
'Twas impotent, unsanctified in these hands. 
The priests lied to me then, and they perforce 
must lie to the King, for me now. Sanctuary! 
I broke through the scarlet hangings at the door, 
and yet live to mock yon wee, blue, sputtering 
flame, on the altar of the mystic god. I call men 
mere children to kneel in these mighty temples 
of the gods, where only the vaulted roof hears 
the supplicant's prayers, and the priests are as 
powerless to change good or evil, as the howling 
wild-dogs on the plains. But Nis-Bel can 
give thanks. (Mockingly kneels before the 
altar) Thanks be unto that man, — no 
god, — who in the days of club and spear questioned 
the correctness of anything, unto that unknown 
mind, that set the ball of Doubt bouncing down 
the stairs of Time. (Rising) All the gods must 
be dead, — at least Babylon's. Nis-Bel says they 
ne'er lived except as a fabrication. The King 
hath dreamed a dream, and his heart hath softened 
towards the Jew overnight. (With a shrug) 
Such men are made of this and that. 

Enter 3 Seers 

Homage to you, ye who carry wisdom upon 
your brows. 



56 BELSHAZZAR 

1st Seer: — (Advancing) 

The dusts of hell be upon thee for thy defilement 
of the sacredness of the sanctuary! May Serah 
torture thy flesh with the pains of hell, and load 
thy feet with chains, and thy life with curses ! 

Nis-Bel:— (Coldly) 

Such fuss! Save thy wind lest thou blow out 
the sacred fires. The King hath dreamed a 
dream. 

2nd Seer: — 

Priests of Hea care not for the King's dreams, 
and they concern us not. 

Nis-Bel:— 

Again folly. Doth death concern thee? Art 
ready for the feast of the silver fountain and dost 
thou wish to enter heaven by the by-path of my 
sword? If thou art not ready to desert forever 
this, thy temple, thou hadst best come quickly 
to the palace, when Belshazzar commands thee. 
I am sent hither for all ye of this sanctuary. The 
King believeth his fate bound hard and fast 
within the fabric of a dream, and chides at delay, 
and loudly calls for an interpretation. 

3rd Seer: — 
What hath the King dreamt? 

Nis-Bel: — 

I do not think for him, neither does he un- 
burden his troubles on me, but wails them out to 



BELSHAZZAR 57 

the sky because a nightly fabrication, born of a 
wine-soaked brain, troubles him. 

1st Seer: — 

Since it is thus commanded, we will go thither 
beneath that roof of crime. Carry thou this 
word to the great Sar. 

Nis-Bel: — (Raising his hand) 

Stay! Hear me, ye three. Ye have heard of 
the battle of Borsippa; ye have learned ere now, 
that King Nabonidus was slain; ye know that 
now Belshazzar is King supreme, and that Cyrus, 
the Persian, encampeth against our walls. Ye 
know, — 

Three Seers: — (Interrupting) 

Nay! woe, woe! to Babylon and to us! 

Nis-Bel: — 

Save your woes to temper your sorceries and 
wicheries. Yet may they prove convenient and 
effective. The point is that the great King is 
angered and troubled by a dream. I know not 
what it is, but whatever color it takes in the 
telling, do ye interpret it to mean woe to Babylon, 
unless the Jew is destroyed, seed and branch. 

1st Seer: — 

Presumest thou to tell Hea's seers how to 
interpret dreams? 

2nd Seer: — 

Thou knowest the traffic of the kingly courts, 
we the voices of the gods. 



58 BELSHAZZAR 

3rd Seer: — 

Accursed Prince ! Heaven blast him ! 

{They turn to go) 

Nis-Bel : — {Quickly) 

Stay! Have ye heard of a god in heaven 
named Jehovah? Ye saw Him yesternight riding 
over the sky's burning marls. Do ye, then, also 
love the Jew's God? Mind lest He over-rule 
your gods. Belshazzar's mind is troubled, so use 
ye the King as an instrument to remove Jehovah 
back to Canaan. Then will Asshur rule supreme 
over Babylonia. 

All Seers: — 

Glory to Asshur, and the heavenly hosts ! 

Nis-Bel: — 

And to him of the argent sceptre ! Then black 
must be the color of your interpretation. {Touch- 
ing each one in turn) Wilt thou interpret his 
dream to mean death to someone; and thou hint 
darkly of death to him, the King; and thou offer 
to him as the only alternative of life and glory, 
the slaying of the Jew? Then the monarch will 
rejoice, and load you with gold and silver and 
precious stones. 

2nd Seer: — 

Great Prince, we will do thy bidding. 

3rd Seer: — 

Yea, and obey thee for thy gold. 



BELSHAZZAR 59 

1st Seer: — 
And for the fair promise of heavenly revenge. 

Nis-Bel: — 

Haste ye then to the palace, where the King 
raves ready to believe any story, and any explana- 
tion is better than none to such a troubled mind. 
(Exit Nis-Bel) 

All Seers: — 

"Then sing your songs of hate, ye fiends, 

And hurl your pestilential breath, 
'Till every soul before us bend, 
And worship here the god of Death. " 

1st Seer: — 
Wealth, honor, protection, and power. Come! 

(CURTAIN) 



ACT THIRD 

Scene First 

(Morn of fourth day. Scene shows the great 
hall in the palace. Present, King ,Nitrocris, sa- 
traps, soldiers, dancing girls. Seba stands above, 
behind a column near Arioch.) 

Dancing Girls: — (Singing) 

" No rival hath our mighty Sar, 

Thy cymbals strike and raise the cry. 
All hail ! all hail ! great Belshazzar ! 
His deeds immortal glorify. " 

Nitrocris:— (To Belshazzar) 

When wilt thou choose thy maid? See how 
ugly now thy women have grown, and they were 
never other than those, who would as quickly 
sell thy slave as thou, their bodies and their 
passions. 

Belshazzar: — 

No more of that. I am plagued with other 

things. Anon, I will choose a wife to satisfy thee, 

mother. Thou art unreasonable, and well-nigh 

wearest out my patience with thy nagging. My 

60 



BELSHAZZAR 61 

heart hath softened over night towards the Jew. 
I tossed last night and a dream did plague my 
sleep. Hath the Prince yet returned? 

Attendant : — 



rTENDANT : — 

Not yet hath he returned, my lord. 



Nitrocris: — 

Yesterday, thou wast brave, now thou sittest 
there trembling like a woman before her angry 
lord. 

Belshazzar : — ( To Arioch) 

Cameth no news from Busalosser in the night? 

Arioch : — 

Naught have we heard, nor any sound of 
battle. From the walls, I saw thy hosts resting 
on the plain, under clouds of dust. 

(Enter Nis-Bel) 

Nis-bel: — 

Thy wise men follow hard upon my heels. 

Dancing Girls : — 

"Thy city they will bless, O Sar! 

With joy, with joy! 
And prosper thee in peace and war 
With joy, with joy!" 

Belshazzar: — 

Take the women away. They dance prettily, 
but their voices wail. 



62 BELSHAZZAR 

Nis-Bel: — 

He truly must be sick. 

Enter Seers 

1st Seer: — (Advancing) 

Length of days, long lasting years, a strong 
sword, a long life, extended years of glory, pre- 
eminence among kings, grant ye to the King, my 
lord, who hath given such gifts unto his gods. 

2nd Seer: — (Kneeling) 

And after the life of these days, in the feast of 
the silver fountain, the heavenly courts, the 
abodes of blessedness; and in the light of the 
Happy Fields, mayest thou dwell a life eternal, 
holy, in the presence of the gods, who inhabit 
Babylonia. 

3rd Seer: — 

All glory to thee, O King ! Command us ! 

Belshazzar: — 

Rise up, ye men of wisdom. (Pointing) 
Stand there. Lend unto me your prophetic 
voices, and look ye far adown the dim vistas 
of the future, to see what meaneth this dream 
which last night did plague my sleep. 

"I saw two men, last night, beside a god; one 
a turban wore, and fearless trod; the god reached 
forth his hand, and struck one down. Like 
mountains hurled on fields of corn thus prone he 
lay." The raiment which clothed the body of 
the hapless one was scarlet, his hands were scarlet, 






BELSHAZZAR 63 

and as the god looked down upon him, prone at 
his feet, great flocks of caws and kites came up 
from the four winds of the heavens, and hovered 
ready to light and begin that awful feast, as soon 
as the god should raise his hand. The second 
warrior of the twain kept his place on the right 
hand of the god, and in his hand was a sword, 
and on his brow, a laurel wreath. 

This dream, all the night, came and went, now 
vivid, now dim, until the first signs of the dawn. 
Then it vanished. Interpret this dream I charge 
you, ye seers of Hea. 

1st Seer: — 

That god was Adar, the terrible lord of the 
spirits of heaven and the spirits of earth, and the 
man lying prone there on the plain, clothed in 
scarlet, was thee, King. 

2nd Seer: — 

The hovering caws and kites were the hosts of 
Persia, threatening thy destruction. The war- 
rior beside the god, wearing the laurel wreath, 
was Cyrus, their King. 

3rd Seer: — 

To fight such power of the gods, to oppose 
Adar, is vain for thee, King Belshazzar, Lord of 
Babylon. 

Belshazzar : — (Angrily) 

Ye lie, devils; spirits of darkness and demons 
of the seven nights, ye lie ! 



64 BELSHAZZAR 

1st Seer: — 

Great King, there is yet more. 

2nd Seer: — 

Yea! Thou hast angered the powers above, 
King of Babylon, and Asshur, my lord, must have 
a sacrifice. Make peace with him, for to fight 
such power is vain. 

3rd Seer: — 

"And if thine anger rules thy heart 

As fire, as fire! 
And thou, against thy foes, would start 

With ire, with ire! 
Against thy foes, thy heart be hard, 
And all thy land with fire be scarred, 

Destroy thy foes. 
Destroy them in thine ire!" 

Belshazzar: — 

Mean ye to destroy the Persian who has march- 
ed against my city? 

1st Seer: — 

Destroy first the Jew within thy walls. He 
is the sacrifice demanded by high heaven. Then 
thou canst easily drive Cyrus before thee back 
into Media. 

2nd Seer: — 

There is naught else, King. May the gods 
preserve thee. 

{They make obeisance and retire) 



BELSHAZZAR 65 

Nis-Bel : — (Aside) 

They think no more than a full crow on a 
summer's day, yet 'twas neatly done. 

Belshazzar: — 

I did not wish it so, but everything points to the 
necessity for the death of the Jews. I know not 
why for they are the least turbulent of my people. 

Nitrocris: — 

And their maids are more beautiful than ours. 
They do seem to me to be very seemly in their 
love of peace. 

Nis-Bel:— (ArtfvUy) 

The gods know best. Hast never seen along the 
shores of Euphrates, the royal stream, a pool, ly- 
ing enclosed on all sides by its green banks covered 
with roses? There are many such. They, on 
the mirror of their surfaces, are calm and peace- 
ful, but at the bottom of their cool waters, there 
are mires of sand treacherous and quick to draw 
into their black depths the artless stag, that 
comes to cool his panting sides in their refreshing 
waters. Such is the Jew. Visibly, he is as 
harmless as Euphrates' pool, but in the bottom of 
his nature, slumbering deep below the surface, 
are the treacherous sands of passion, faith, and 
tradition, which can draw thee, O Belshazzar, to 
thy doom. They are an artful race, cunning, 
and by guile at last, may overthrow thee by 
leaguing themselves with Cyrus of Persia. 



66 BELSHAZZAR 

Belshazzar: — 

They shall die; perish by the torch, the axe, 
the spear. Haste, Arioch! thy Ethiops! 

Nis-Bel: — 

Nay, King, call not him. His breast is soft, and 
he pities the wretched. He can only muddy the 
pool without draining its treacherous waters. 
Thou dost not need such a lieutenant for this 
work; but I have already prepared the death of 
the Canaanite as thou didst order yesterday. 

Seba: — (To Arioch) 

Must I look upon such a monster and not strike? 
I will clutch his throat, and grind under heel his 
saffron robe. 

Arioch : — ( Uneasily) 

Be calm, my friend, lest thou draw on thee and 
me a worse fate. 

Belshazzar: — 

The funereal clouds of my gloom have blown 
away, and again the sun shines. The gods shall 
have their sacrifice, they who love blood and 
death, while we feast and drink. 

Nitrocris: — 

Such is the necessity, but I who pitied not my 
husband, pity them because they are so helpless : 
but no more of that. Belshazzar, 'tis time for 
thee to have led before thee the beauty of the 
world, for a choice of thy queen. 



BELSHAZZAR 67 

Belshazzar: — 

Thou, like all women of every clime, thinkest 
little of war and terror, but much of love and 
peace. In a woman that is meet; but every man 
has to be pitiless, climb over the prostrate bodies 
of the weak, to reach the zenith of his destiny. 
(To guard) Lead the women in. 

(Enter long line of women, both Babylonian and 
Jewish, together with women of other countries. 
They pass slowly before the throne. Madeline is 
among them. Belshazzar and Nitrocris closely 
scrutinize each one as she passes.) 

Belshazzar: — 

How beautiful! She from Arabia? No, too 
low she hangs her head. 

Nitrocris: — 

And minces in her steps. 

Belshazzar : — 

Yea! Yet another? Look you, mother, at the 
pride written on her face. How she strides ! I'll 
wager she was born and bred in Babylon. 

Nitrocris: — 

Too masculine ! Methinks she forgot her sword 
and shield. 

Belshazzar: — 

This, a daughter of the Syrian sun. How her 
breast heaves, and her face is sensitive! I like 
her looks. 



68 BELSHAZZAR 

Nitrocris: — 

Yet, she is slightly under-size, and hath not 
that regal front to match thy majesty. 

Arioch : — ( To Seba) 

The eye is not the only judge of womankind. 

Seba : — ( To Arioch) 

To such as he, it is the only judge. 

Belshazzar: — 

Here cometh a languid Elamite. How red are 
her lips; her body is as slender as the reed; and 
she seems scarcely to move, so smoothly does she 
glide. 

Nitrocris: — 

Unfit to wear the purple robe. She hath not 
pride enough. 

(Madeline passes before the King) 

Belshazzar: — 

By the heavens and earth! A woman of 
Judah! A Jew! She trembles but as lightly 
as the reed! How nobly and proudly 
she carries her head! What jet black hair; what 
a neck, graceful as the antelope's, without an 
ornament, without a jewel, and needing none! 
Born in a princely house of Judah, yes, without a 
doubt. (To Madeline) Stop there, before the 
brazen throne. Art thou of Jewry? So fresh! 
O beauty, breathe thy sweet charms on Belshaz- 
zar! (To Nitrocris) How mother? 



BELSHAZZAR 69 

Nitrocris: — 

'Tis well, Belshazzar, thy choice. 

Belshazzar: — 

The grim visage of the war-god would crack 
and wrinkle, wreathed in smiles, in thy presence, 
jewel of Judah. Thy name? 

Madeline : — (Faintly) 

Madeline, daughter of Azariah, prophet of 
Israel. 

Belshazzar: — 

A princess, indeed, but I shall call thee child of 
the soft voice. No man alive could resist the 
charm of that well-rounded forehead, that white 
heaving bosom, those lips so ruby ruddy, and 
that low voice so tunefully sweet, bearing a hint 
of things sweetly mysterious. No king would 
wish to close his eyes on that raven hair, or 
shrink from looking into those eyes, radiant, deep, 
and unfathomable. 

Seba : — (Fiercely muttering) 

Purple tyrant of hell ! Seba will face thee. 

Arioch: — (Placing a restraining hand on his 
shoulder) 

Stay! yet may est thou be her savior. 

To face him would be folly. 

Seba : — 

God grant it! Must I look? I cannot, now 
turn my head away. 



70 BELSHAZZAR 

Belshazzar: — (To Madeline) 

Seat thyself here on the throne of bronze, there, 
not so high, on the step. Now, look at Belshaz- 
zar, thy lord. Chain me with thy arms, and 
hold a king as thy slave. 

Seba : — 

Will heaven permit it? Hell cracks its bounds 
and the devils escape. 

Belshazzar: — (Touching her) 

Thou must change this linen for robes of royal 
hue. Likest thou fabrics of gossamer, and en- 
velopes of woven gauze in which to wrap the 
matchless symmetry of thy body? All lands, 
far and near, will yield up to thee their silky webs 
and tissues of many hues. I will load thy arms 
and neck with festoons of gems. Thy crown will 
dazzle, and thy crest- jewel will be a diamond 
leaping into life, in the halo of thine own matchless 
head. (Touching her hand) How soft is thy skin, 
as soft as a parrot's breast ! 

Nis-Bel: — (Under his breath) 

The royal fool carries his praise beyond the 
bounds of reason. Why not sing a song, since 
King hath turned poet? See what my magic- 
knot hath done. 'Twould seem that I bought it 
for the King. 

Enter Messenger 

Messenger : — 

Thy army is in full flight towards thy gates. 



BELSHAZZAR 71 

Ten thousand lie slain on yonder reeking plain, 
and I saw vultures, treading corpses, revelling 
in that victory of death, too full, too gorged, to 
hover. Only the walls have stopped the inarch 
of the victorious Cyrus. 

(Stands aside) 

Enter Busalosser mounded 

Belshazzar : — 

And thou returned in thine own strength, and 
not borne along by others on the stretcher of 
death? Wherefore, captain? 

Busalosser : — (Faintly) 

Their hosts could not be stayed, but like an 
avalanche on the slopes of the Armenian mounts, 
did their forces hurl themselves in waves upon 
us. I was forced to flee within the walls. I am 
faint. (Falls) 

Belshazzar : — (Angrily) 

Away with him! (They bear him out) (To 
Madeline) Sweet queen, thou art unused to such 
sights of horror; never again will thy eyes be 
offended by the crimson badge of strife. Never! 
I, the King, will see to it. (Rises) Come, I will 
place over thy raven locks a circlet of gold. 

Nis-Bel, call the captains together in council 
of war; say that the King will be there, and woe 
unto him who dare say that the lords of Mesopo- 
tamia cannot stand against Media's hosts. 

(Exit Nis-Bel) 



72 BELSHAZZAR 

This night we feast; tomorrow we fight to show 
the Jew, Jehovah, and the Persian, who lords it 
over Tigris and Euphrates. (Exeunt King and 
Madeline) 

(Running to and fro) 

(CURTAIN) 

Act Third 

Scene Second 

(Morning of fourth day. The prophet Daniel's 
house. Present Daniel and Azariah) 

Azariah: — 

Woe is the old man! The house now is still. 
Vanished, gone, is the soul of the house. I shake, 
I tremble. Belshazzar hath taken the old man's 
strength with his daughter. Look down, Jehovah, 
on thy wretched people. (Sobs) 

Daniel: — (Comforting him) 

God is not mocked. Be thou of good cheer, 
for He who can carry His children unharmed and 
unburned, through the white heat of the blazing 
furnaces, can protect his own, who hath fallen 
into the hands of the King. 

Azariah: — 

The King, Nis-Bel, Babylon, Hell burn them 
all in its hottest flames. Torture them through 
thrice seven eternities, for laying their vile hands 



BELSHAZZAR 73 

of rape upon a daughter of purity. (Becoming 
calmer) Prophet, they took her at sun-rise, while 
thou and I visisted the brethren. They took her, 
and carried her off to the palace; they took her, 
yes they told me so, as she arose from her knees 
after giving thanks unto her God. Wherefore, 
prophet, thinkest thou that they tore her from 
her old father? God! Is God dead? 

Daniel : — (Gently) 

Peace! mock not God in thy bitterness. Re- 
member his love-kindness to thee through all the 
days of thy life, and let not the stings of grief and 
adversity prick thee to those words of bitterness. 

Azariah : — 

Yes, 'tis bitter, 'tis bitter! They seek to damn 
her soul. Madeline, will God suffer it for thee 
to lie in painted splendor beside that monster of 
lust? Who will protect purity, since God is dead? 

Daniel: — 

Comfort ! how knowest thou that the King has 
taken our dear Madeline to defile her purity? 
Thy servants, in their fright at the prince and 
his soldiers, may have stretched the truth, and 
naught of harm will come to her. 

Azariah: — 

Thou hast not a father's heart. Must she 
suffer kisses upon her brow, her lips? Nay, 
rather a thousand times stabs in her fair bosom, 
than kisses with its curse upon her brow. 



74 BELSHAZZAR 

Enter Seba 

(Daniel leaves Azariah, and goes towards the 
Prince to meet him. Seba looks wildly about.) 

Daniel: — (To Seba) 

Let not thy lips speak here what thy face tells 
too well. The good Azariah can scarcely bear 
himself up under his heavy load of grief. 

Seba : — (Dully to Daniel) 

Belshazzar hath taken my Madeline for his 
queen. 

Daniel: — 

How heardest thou that? If it be true what 
thou hast spoken, the heart of my friend will break 
with grief. 

Seba: — 

I have seen such things as man's tongue ne'er 
can tell. Would to God that I had not seen 
what I have seen, nor heard what I have heard. 
Man's heart cannot for long bear what mine has 
borne, and not wish to kill, and kill. 

Azariah: — (Seeing Seba) 

Noble Prince, look at me. Thy face is dark 
and well I know that thou hatest God, too. 
Scarcely can I keep my spirit in this old body. Al- 
ready, I see the palace of the dead with its ebon 
gates, — cold black gates. Seba, I feel that soon 
I must enter there. Ah! they stole her, my soft 
chick. 



BELSHAZZAR 75 

Daniel: — 

Come Azariah, come with thy friend, Daniel. 

(Exeunt Daniel and Azariah) 

Seba : — (Pacing) 

There is only blackness without, the world is 
within me. How can all the face of things change 
so quickly? Yesterday, I loved, and my heart 
held naught of hate towards any human soul; I 
was joyous, I was drunk with life. Then that 
scene within the palace came, and I stood there, 
restrained by a hope, that by not risking my life, 
perchance, I could save her honor. I forgot, in 
the hate of that moment everything; I forgot the 
cry of prayer, the voiceless supplication; I forgot 
the greed of the world, its barren gifts, its demands 
in return; I forgot the kiss, the throbbing heart, 
the voice's sweetest music; then I only hated, 
and had to stand there inactive, helpless, unable 
to raise my hand to protect a life dearer to me 
than mine. (Pauses) Yet, there may be hope. 
The Persian hosts encamp on the plain, and soon 
will hurl themselves against these walls. Would 
that I were ten thousand Sebas, to face Belshaz- 
zar. (Enter Nis-Bel and stands listening) God 
grant that great Cyrus of Persia may raze and 
level the temples and mounds of this wicked city, 
turning its streets into a bloody shambles. 

Nis-Bel : — (Advancing) 

Bloody shambles? Jew, ere tomorrow eve, 
the gods being good to thee, thou wilt have thy 
wish. 



76 BELSHAZZAR 

Seba : — ( Turning) 

Thou here? Thou who hast swept off to thy- 
self the wealth of others, lined thy coffers with 
the substance of a persecuted people, thrust on 
by thy insatiable greed; thou who hast sent the 
abominable seed of thy malignant soul into every 
cranny of Babylon to sprout there, and be the 
ruin of innocence and purity; thou must die by 
my hand. Knowest thou who faces thee? 

Nis-Bel:— (Coldly) 

Most certainly, thou art an arrant fool. Thou 
art unarmed, and here at my side, hangs my 
sword. If ever thou thoughtest aught of thy 
country-woman, now the queen, listen to this 
message which she bade me, — commanded me, I 
should say, — to bring to thee and her father. 
Leaving out the pretty phrases and tender words 
too fragile to bear in transport for so long a jour- 
ney, her message is this. 

"Tell Seba," — she said Prince Seba, but that 
I'll skip, — "tell Seba, if he loveth Madeline, who 
was his betrothed, to care for her father in his 
helplessness and loneliness." She added with 
the usual female weakness, "and thou, Seba, oft 
think of me, as I was then." (Going) And 
Nis-Bel might add for thine own information, 
that tomorrow will, be a very good time to prove 
to Queen Madeline, that thou art able to shelter 
her father. 

(Exit Nis-Bel) 
Seba: — 

Thy lips have laid on me a command as sacred 



BELSHAZZAR 77 

as the voice of God, and that thing will I do as 
long as I breathe, and can say "Madeline." 

(CURTAIN) 

Act Third 

Scene Third 

(Early night of the fourth day. The great ban- 
quet hall in the palace, — Present, Belshazzar, Nitro- 
cris, Nis-Bel, Madeline, women, attendants, danc- 
ing girls, slaves, etc. The curtain rises upon a 
scene of revelry.) 

Belshazzar: — 

More wine bring! wine of Media! wine from 
Cappadocia, red wine from Persian fields ! (Hold- 
ing his goblet aloft) This red wine that I quaff 
is Cyrus' blood. 

Nis-Bel: — 

Or blood from the veins of the Canaanite. 

Belshazzar: — 

True Prince, but no more of Jew or Persian. 

Nis-Bel: — 

Yet, thou must not forget either. 

Belshazzar: — (Drunk, pauses with uplifted glass) 

I remember well; I remember those wounded 

messengers returning; I remember Busalosser's 



78 BELSHAZZAR 

scarlet helm; I remember the tumult without the 
walls; yea, I see those peridote eyes of, — of 
Madeline, the Jewess. Madeline, look on 
Belshazzar. 

Madeline: — 
Great, my lord. 

Belshazzar: — (Enraged) 

Thou tremble at thy lord! Am I drunk, am I 
bloody, am I cruel? Nay, thy looks lie. Bel- 
shazzar is gentle, meek as the lamb. 

Madeline : — 
Yea, my lord. 

Belshazzar: — 

No! again thou liest. Belshazzar is cruel, 
relentless as the tiger, great as the gods. 

Madeline : — 
Yea, my lord. 

Belshazzar: — 

That answer is better. Thou must be my 
sweet judge, for who liketh to judge himself? 
What, ho ! Music ! Queen Madeline, Jew, what 
music likest thou best? 

Madeline : — 

The harp, my lord. 

Belshazzar: — (To a musician) 

Singer, bring thy harp of gold. Sing thou a 



BELSHAZZAR 79 

tender song. (To another) Thou, then, on thy 
dulcimer play something braver to stir the blood. 
(To all) Bring timbrels, bring saehbut, and 
with them make music to the stars, and know 
that Belshazzar is king. 

(The musicians begin the music on their several 
instruments) 

Nis-Bel: — 

O King, the silver lutes ! 

Belshazzar: — 

Not for Belshazzar. Bellow forth timbrels, 
barsoms, and drums, alarm the very gods of the 
skies, and proclaim to Babylon Belshazzar, King. 

Nis-Bel : — (Cunningly) 

Not yet. Where are the Jew, and Jehovah? 

Belshazzar: — 

In hell, not in Babylon. 

Nis-Bel: — 

Jehovah is yet great. 

Belshazzar: — 

Thou liest ! Jehovah is as impotent as the pigmy 
sprite, in the nether world. His might hath been 
taken away, and His omnipotence hath shrunken 
to a mere, " I wish. " Belshazzar hath conquered 
Jehovah of Canaan; he hath conquered the powers 
of heaven and earth; he hath conquered death 
and death shall die. 



80 BELSHAZZAR 

Nis-Bel: — 

Yet He hath might. None there be on earth, 
or in heaven who dare defy the omnipotence of 
Israel's God. On mention of His mighty name, 
the priests of Asshur tremble, and the fires on his 
altars burn low. So it is said by His people, that 
their God will punish him who dare defy Jehovah, 
or harm His people. This belief is spread forth, 
King, and none yet in Babylon hath dared kill a 
Jew. 

Belshazzar: — 

I would defy Him, if I knew He would blast me. 
He hath no real glory, and cannot protect His 
people. (Rising thoroughly aroused) Thunder 
from thy high heavens, Jehovah, God, and blast 
me, or I will kill Thee, and make thy kingdom of 
the skies and on the earth as desolate as the 
desert sands of Arabia! Bel-Marduk ruleth in 
heaven. Bring forth the sacred vessels, the 
vessels of gold, and of silver, which the great 
Nebuchadnezzar brought from Jerusalem unto 
Babylon. Go! (Servants retire, the King resumes 
his seat) The dancers, ho! Let the King drink 
in the melody of women's moving forms. 

(The King lies back and watches the girls dance) 

Nitrocris: — 

Thou art brave tonight. 

Belshazzar: — 

The world cannot match me. 



BELSHAZZAR 81 

Nis-Bel : — {Aside) 

A royal weakling in the third degree of drink 
sits playing the fool, and boasts that the world 
holds not his peer. Faith in mine own judgment 
makes me think that if there were a copy like yon 
royal braggart, that heaven in shame would 
destroy it, and repent having permitted the 
shadow, without the man. 

Belshazzar: — {Angrily to Nis-Bel) 

I heard thee muttering. Speak aloud tonight. 
'Tis time for speaking. None of thy sly looks, 
thy mutterings, or thy sparkling eyes turned 
inward upon thyself. I heard it, "without the 
man." Wherefore, Prince? 

Nis-Bel: — 

I marked thy glory, thy purple magnificence, 
and thy radiant queen crowned with flowers, and 
bethought me, — for in moments like these, 
thoughts of contrast thrust themselves unbidden 
upon us, — of the plight of our people, if thy father, 
King Nabonidus, still reigned in Babylon without 
thee, without the man, the peerless warrior, his 
might and his glory. 

Belshazzar : — {Drunk) 

Great art thou, Prince, and I make thee ruler 
over Accadia. {Nis-Bel bows) 

(Re-enter Attendants with sacred vessels) 

(Seizes a goblet) The goblets, pass the sacred 
goblets round. Wine hath made us gods. Fill 



82 BELSHAZZAR 

the cups, fill I say, and drink wine from the goblets 
of Jerusalem's sacred shrine. (Raising cup above 
his head) Drink to the death of Jehovah, and 
the Jew, out of the cups wrought in Judah. 
Jehovah, how Belshazzar, King, despiseth thee! 

Nis-Bel: — 

I drink to death. (Drinks) Fill again; yet 
more. Belshazzar, drink and pledge me from 
this large one. 

Belshazzar: — (Seizing it) 

I quaff from the Cup of God. Cry it on Cana- 
an's sacred hills, shout it through Jerusalem's 
empty streets, that Jehovah liveth not, and that 
Babylonian princes drink from His sacred cups. 

Madeline : — (Aloud) 

Ah, my God! Suffer not this blasphemy. 

Nis-Bel:— (To King) 

Yea, and verily He hath kissed thy feet, and 
gone forever is His power. 

Madei jne : — (Loudly) 

God of Heaven, manifest thyself and hurl back 
on this wicked King these blasphemies and curses. 

Belshazzar: — (Angrily raising his hand) 
Woman, Viper! 

Madeline : — (Pointing) 
King, look ! 



BELSHAZZAR 83 

(Suddenly on the wall, a hand moves in flame 
and traces words of destiny in unknown characters. 
All is hushed, they sit and stand with tense muscles, 
frightened faces, and whisper one to another) 

Belshazzar: — (With wild horror on his face) 
Dash the cups to pieces! Pierce the hand of 
flame! 

Nitrocris : — (Whispering) 

A sign, an awful sign, King! 

Nis-Bel:— (Coldly) 

Babes in purple ! 

Belshazzar : — (Slowly) 

The God of Canaan yet lives. It is a sign from 
the Great King above. (Loudly) Quick, call 
the seers. 

(Exit Attendant) 

Madeline : — 

Ah, God ! I thank thee. 

Nis-Bel: — 

The seers can only lie. Nis-Bel himself sees the 
fiery writing, else he would say impossible. 

Belshazzar: — 

What huge jest hath been played on me? Who 
dared to defy the King; to tread invisible over 
these antique floors of jasper, past my winged 
bulls: who defies the throne of bronze; who walks 



84 BELSHAZZAR 

down the pillared vistas, between the Babylonian 
soldiery, to insult Belshazzar? Look! Yet it 
flames. 

Enter Three Seers 

Wise men of Media, if ever ye did strain your 
eyes adown the dim vistas of the future to read 
the meaning on the face of destiny, and have read 
it, now strain all your heaven-given powers to 
read yonder flaming letters. 

1st Seer: — (Taken back) 
Flaming! 

2nd Seer: — 

Letters of blood! 

3rd Seer: — 

In unknown characters, not of Babylonia, not 
of Media, unknown in Elam, strange to Canaan, 
scarlet ! 

1st Seer: — 

How awful ! the letters shift to and fro. 

Belshazzar: — 

Asshur, my lord, but they hesitate! Read, 
or by the flaming fires of hell, before the faces 
of men, ye shall perish wretchedly! Still, ye 
hesitate. Arioch, put them to death; pierce 
them on the threshold of the temple, and throw 
their bodies over the walls to the Persian crows. 
(They lead the seers away) Ransack all the 
temples, bring all the priests, and if there be 



BELSHAZZAR 85 

wisdom in my city, I will know the meaning of 
those awful characters. 

Nis-Bel: — 

Great King, there is one among the Jews, 
reputed wise. He calleth himself Daniel, and can 
interpret dreams. Bring him hither to read 
yonder scrawl. 

Belshazzar: — 

Arioch ! if thou thinkest aught of thy life, haste 
and bring the Jew hither, else thou wilt follow 
the seers over Babylon's walls. (Exit Arioch) 

(The King trembles; Nitrocris has hidden her 
head; Madeline's face is lighted with a great joy) 

Nis-Bel : — (Half aloud) 

They hear naught, nor see, nor care. The 
flaming light hath taken all senses away. Always 
do the weak fear what they do not understand. 
What a scene of fear! something like nothing one 
ever saw, all stark with terror, mad, and topsy- 
turvy, like life in a drunken dream. But, no 
man alive can read yonder crimson sign. How it 
shifts! Nis-Bel almost trembles. Daniel of the 
Jews hath no more penetration than Hea's seers, 
and in the nature of things, will fail to read the 
message. Then he will follow the seers over the 
walls. (Aloud) King Belshazzar, here comet h 
the prophet of Judah, who can read the message 
sent thee from the unknown. 

Enter Daniel, Azariah, Mishael, and Seba. 



86 BELSHAZZAR 

Belshazzar: — 

Jew, interpret yonder flaming letters written in 
blood. If thou canst read yonder sign, thou shalt 
have thy heart's desire; thou shalt be next Bel- 
shazzar in power; thou may est have a temple to 
thy God and thy reward will be exceeding great. 

Daniel: — (Turns from throne towards wall and 

back again) 

Belshazzar, who is she sitting there beside thee, 
thou cruel and lustful King? 

Belshazzar: — 

The queen! Quick, interpret! 

Daniel: — 

Belshazzar of Babylon, she is the child of this 
man, Azariah. 

Belshazzar: — 

Quick, I say, or thy body will bleed and thou 
wilt breathe out thy life through a spear hole. 

Daniel: — 

Listen, O King! When thy grandsire, Nebuc- 
hadnezzar, ruled over this people, even 
as thou, he would not hear of Jehovah. He 
lived in splendor, and gloried in cruelty and 
vengeance; then the great God of Israel did 
humble him even as the beasts of the fields, and 
he did eat grass like the ox. He lived as the 
beasts of the fields for seven long years, until he 
looked up to heaven, and knew in his heart that 



BELSHAZZAR 87 

Jehovah was greater than he and his gods. Then, 
he ruled again over thy fair city. King Belshaz- 
zar, Nebuchadnezzar's sins were great, but thine 
are greater. Thou hast mocked God; thou hast 
profaned His sacred vessels; and always, even 
before now, thy every success adorned itself with 
the red garlands of sin. Thy doom was written 
upon the wall, when thou didst lift up thy hand 
to defy and dishonor Him. Look you at the 
flaming sign and read in it thy doom, O King! 

Madeline : — (Fervently) 
Thank thee, O Father! 

Belshazzar : — (Faintly) 
The meaning read. 

Daniel: — 

Mene, mene, tekel, upharsin! 

" God hath numbered thy kingdom, and finished 
it." 

Belshazzar: — 
Yet more ! 

Daniel: — 

"Thou art weighed in the balance and art 
found wanting. " 

Belshazzar: — 

Great Seer, still more ! 



88 BELSHAZZAR 

Daniel: — 

"Thy kingdom is divided and given to the 
Medes and Persians. " 

(The writing disappears) 

Belshazzar: — 

Clothe the prophet in scarlet and gold. Be 
thy name Belte-shazzar, and reign thou over the 
third part of my kingdom, as mighty as I. 

Daniel: — (Pointing to Madeline) 
Release her to her people. 

Belshazzar: — 

Nay ! she is the queen. 

Daniel: — 

Thou truly art blind. Life, O King, is change, 
death is change. Thou wouldst pluck the rose 
without the thorn; drink the wine and leave the 
dregs; thou wouldst live and forget dying; seek 
pleasure without pain. Life's roses have withered, 
and now thou wilt have the pain; drink the lees, 
and bear the hate. Thou shalt go from this 
banquet hall to the hall of judgment. Belshaz- 
zar, King, in the night thou shalt die. 

(Exit with others) 

Belshazzar: — 

That awful voice! terrible in its deliberation. 



BELSHAZZAR 89 

Ho, music! be merry, dance, drink, laugh, for 
'twas only the drunken dream of a drunken King. 

Nis-Bel: — 

Yea, King, and meaneth naught. 

(The revelry begins anew and continues) 

(CURTAIN) 



ACT FOURTH 

Scene First 

(Night of the Fourth Day. Scene interior of 
Belshazzur's chamber. Present Belshazzar and 
Nis-Bel) 

Nis-Bel: — 

Thou, in thy fear, didst give power into the 
hands of Daniel, unto him, the seer of Israel, unto 
the priest of God, whose rival power in heaven 
and earth, thou shouldst fear. He is a Jew, a 
captive, an old man, fixed and set in his ways of 
life, and changeless in his ways of thinking; and 
unto him thou hast committed the sceptre over 
one-third of thy kingdom. King Belshazzar, thy 
decree of death for the Jews will be carried out, 
for I, thy captain, have thy seal, and to cancel 
thy decree, thou must strike Nis-Bel dead with 
thy royal hand. 

Belshazzar: — 

Yet, I hear those words of terror, Prince. 
They will not leave me. Belte-shazzar, the 
prophet of God hath stirred up the blackest mud 
and mire of my nature. In the night again came 
his voice, "Belshazzar, King, in the night thou 
shalt die; Belshazzar, King, in the night on thy 
90 



BELSHAZZAR 91 

battlements, grasping the sword, thou shalt die. 
Belshazzar, King, Jehovah is not mocked." 

Nis-Bel: — 

In the past, the God of Canaan troubled not 
thy fathers who lived in the full measure of their 
glory, — men. 

Belshazzar: — 

Yea, I too, slew thousands on the hills of 
Canaan, 'twas but an incident ; thousands of horse- 
men of Elam bore I down in battle; I hurled wild 
death on earth far to north and west; and I rode 
thundering over the earth like a fire-god, desecrat- 
ing temples, forcing submission of kings and of 
peoples, and with dire fury razed walls and 
palaces. Oh, what joy was there in the torture! 
How relentless was my stroke of death! How 
the victims trembled when I stood up and gloated 
that I could destroy! (Slowly) But now I fear, 
and have seen nothing more substantial than a 
bloody scrawl on my marbles. (Shrinks in horror) 
It moved and nickered, and its scarlet letters 
blazed and burned, sending forth a message of 
death. The light from that flaming scrawl 
flashed angerly, and joined those deep in Belte- 
shazzar's prophetic eye. 

Nis-Bel: — (Turning from window with contempt 

onface) 

Thou majestic? Art powerful? Nay! Bugs 
and lice! Majestic thou callest thyself; let it pass 
since 'tis only a name. Fear and majesty dwelling 



92 BELSHAZZAR 

as co-equals on the same brow! Impossible! 
(Louder) Impotent King! For shame, if thou 
can do naught else, don thy war harness, and go 
forth against the Persian, and fighting, forget the 
terror of God. (Turns in contempt back to the 
window) Nor mockery, nor jeers, can arouse 
him who fears thus, and the sprites of the air and 
the powers of the skies fright us e'en more than a 
gibbet with its dangling corpses dripping blood. 

Belshazzar: — 

That sovereign dread! O, Asshur, my lord, 
bring forth all thy might from the fanes and shrines 
of Babylon to aid thy servant in fighting that 
majesty, terrible and invisible, of a strange god. 
(Pauses j then more slowly) But, how could the 
King know the Jew was a sacred people, far above 
kings and princes? How knew I that when I 
seized Madeline, and tasted her body, that I was 
outraging her God while obtaining a foretaste of 
her paradise? 

Nis-Bel : — (Contemptuously) 

Many weaklings there be who fright at their 
own shadows. There, a man become babe again, 
as weak as gazelle, antelope, or spotted stag. 
The robe of life oft covers the hero; then again, 
as needs must be, it also covers the fool. 

Belshazzar: — 

Bel-Marduk, break this awful silence,this silence 
that lets a thought be heard. Thunder from thy 
clouds, enwrap the King in thy flames, and make 



BELSHAZZAR 93 

him the sport of the winds and the butt of the 
storms, but break this terrible silence, out of 
which gleam the awful eyes of the avenging 
Jehovah, and from which beckons the moving 
finger of destiny. (Falls upon his couch with his 
head between his hands) 

Nis-Bel: — 

A weakling, a royal fool, before whom I have 
oft bowed my head. That comes from brooding, 
a damnable quality in man. Thus, always to be 
conscience sick with a heart burning from the 
prick of elfin swords, comes from a sick imagina- 
tion, and a magnified idea of the divinity of this 
aggregate of worthless flesh, called the body. A 
season in the hills would make him less fearful to 
look the sun in the face. Of all the qualities 
which speak, I cherish only self-esteem, for it 
serves none, and is served by all others. (Touch- 
ing the King) Glorious Prince, who hath made 
thee believe these things? The meanest tiller of 
the fields, and the lowliest shepherd on thy hills, 
would mock thy weakness, thou who art supreme 
over Babylonia. 

Belshazzar : — (Fearfully) 

My fears come from the whisperings of the 
invisible; they are nameless, yet gross as the 
mounts of Armenia. 

Nis-Bel: — 

Call not him free, who rules; he bindeth him- 
self with the fetters of fear which he would im- 



94 BELSHAZZAR 

pose upon his people. King, art thou a slave? 
Art thou tributary to thy weakness; slave to thy 
fears? To die on a spear were better than to 
whimper like a woman. 

Belshazzar: — 

Foul fiend of hell! Knowest thou that thou 
canst not speak thus to me, to Belshazzar, to the 
King of Babylon? Thou demi-devil, cold as ice, 
thou who hast never feared, tremble now before 
him whom thou hast mocked. Tremble, or by 
the mazy constellations of heaven, thou shalt 
hang crucified before the temples of those gods 
whom thou hast mocked ! 

Nis-Bel:— {Coldly) 

Thy anger becomes thee better than impotency. 
By listening to Nis-Bel, a fearless prince of thy 
royal line, thy ear will hear things fraught with 
meaning for thee. 

Belshazzar : — (Quickly) 
Hath aught else transpired? 

Nis-Bel: — 

Yea, long ago. I can tell thee things which 
unknown to thee, have happened in the secret 
recesses of thy palace, and I can recite to thee 
other things, which have come to pass in places 
far remote, yet which touch thee closer than thy 
robes of purple. 

Belshazzar: — 

Hath heaven spoken again? 



BELSHAZZAR 95 

Nis-Bel: — 

Doth a man of sense look for angels; doth he ex- 
pect signs and portents and see realities in sha- 
dows ? My knowledge is all of earth ; my mind hath 
never soared to heaven. Nis-Bel finds earth far 
more wonderful than his comprehension without 
challenging the skies for riddles. King, man's 
passions are stranger than the wee stars of the 
skies; thy weakness, Belshazzar, hath more 
meaning for thy subjects than that meteor 
which yesternight did bewilder their senses. 

Belshazzar: — 

Thou talkest of heaven, of stars, and of fears. 
What hath happened, Prince, that thou fearest 
to speak it forth? 

Nis-Bel: — 

My only fear, — and 'tis great, 'tis true, — is 
that this intelligence, so closely touching thee, 
will again set thee rocking, and nursing thy royal 
head between thy palms. But since thy desire 
to know hath become so manifest, I will speak. 
King, ere thou didst take Madeline, the Jewess, 
to wife, she had lain many times with Nis-Bel, 
Prince of Babylon. Nay, do not start so, and 
grind thy teeth. Such anger will not change those 
events. Thou hast been frightened by a writing 
on thy marbles, which Belte-shazzar, the Jew, 
didst say was a warning to thee for thy blasphemy 
of Jehovah, his God, and for thy dishonor to 
Madeline, the Jewess. Thinkest thou that the 
great Jehovah of the Jews would trouble Himself 



96 BELSHAZZAR 

to avenge such a trull as she? Thinkest thou 
that He would descend from His high heavens to 
write thy doom on thy marbles, because thou 
hadst lain with a Jewess leman picked up from the 
streets? She was ne'er a maid since she can 
remember, but the very trash of Jewry selling her 
passion for a song, or a draught of red wine, and 
shaming even the painted harlots of Babylon's 
streets. She feigned innocence; the mask of 
purity fitted her well, but the forces of heaven 
have other opportunities to vent themselves, 
rather than rob a king of his glory, because he 
outraged a drab, known to the streets of Babylon. 
Thou, thus wouldst make thy power a mockery, 
when there is naught to fear. 

Belshazzar: — 

Nis-Bel, thou shalt be made the mightiest of 
my captains. Thy right hand shall hold the 
sceptre, not alone over Accadia, but over the 
half of Babylonia. The prophet, Daniel's power, 
which I gave him this night, shall be shorn from 
him. Thou art right, and all my trouble came 
from following after new gods. 

Nis-Bel: — 

Yet more, listen! I would tell thee more of 
the Jews, those people who do pretend to live in 
peace and love, and of those whom until now, thy 
might hath protected. The Prince Seba, — called 
a prince among the Jews, — is deadlier to thy 
power, than the lion to the fawn. He is secretly 
leagued with the Persian, knoweth his purpose, 



BELSHAZZAR 97 

and keepeth Cyrus informed of the movements 
of thy cohorts and the plans of thy captains. He 
hath set spies about the palace to catch the 
secret ear and purpose of the King. He watcheth 
thy captains, knoweth their strength and mind, 
and Cyrus knoweth them too, better than thou, O 
King. I have seen Seba in close and uneasy talk 
with the captain of thy guard. They speak to- 
gether for no good, as I take it, King. 

Belshazzar: — 

The captain shall die. By the sacred seven, 
thou hast re-kindled the fires of life in my heart! 
I shall again rule, — and since it must be, — I shall 
rule for a season in blood to purify the festering 
wounds in my empire. 

Nis-Bel: — 

Now thou speakest like a king. The ebon gates 
of death yawn black before every man who walketh 
this earth, and it is only, King, by deeds of 
glory that thou canst perpetuate thy memory and 
live in ages yet to be born. Man honors not the 
petrified ooze-slime from the lips of kings. In 
the passing of a monarch, his people find cause 
for moan, remembering naught of evil against 
him, but place the body in the tomb, wrapped in 
its purple robe which stayeth royal no longer than 
the clay stayeth man. To live forever through 
the cycles of change, thou must live in deeds. 
Rise up then, King Belshazzar, and smite thy 
foes. Punish the Jews, grind them to powder 
under thy relentless chariot wheels, and in thy 



98 BELSHAZZAR 

renewed might, drive the Persian flying before 
thee over the plains of Mesopotamia. 

Belshazzar: — 

That Belshazzar will do. Wine made me 
weak, but thou, by thy good counsel and courage 
hast made me strong. Henceforth, the King's 
hand will never tremble, but be as relentless as 
fate is. Prince, I lay first upon thee a command, 
and let execution follow hard upon it. Ere thou 
rest, drink, sleep, or do aught else, see that Seba, 
the Jew, and Arioch, my captain, lie side by side, 
— dead. (Going) See to it, Prince. (Exit King) 

Nis-Bel: — 

He hesitates too much, and is weak, and 
changeth as oft as the colors of the chameleon's 
skin to suit the complexions and opinions of the 
medium wherein he liveth. (Pausing) But it was 
strange, that flaming hand. Fear hath entered 
Babylon. The King trembles; dead is the brave 
man, the strong soldier; valor is gone, might hath 
vanished. Only the walls remain, and Jehovah 
ruleth Belshazzar through fear. Belshazzar saith 
to Nis-Bel to-night, "Prince, slay not the Jew as 
I commanded thee to do this morn," and hard 
on the heels of this command follows a counter- 
command, "Prince, slay Seba and Arioch." He 
might have added, and still been within the pale 
of truth, " I fear. " True, then he was in his cups, 
but having rekindled the spark of a dying hope 
by the tinder of lies, Nis-Bel will yet gain by 
indirection what otherwise had failed. (Striding 



BELSHAZZAB 99 

'I 
away) But such poor material to work on! He 
keeps the moulded form no better than an over- 
wet clay. 

(CURTAIN) 



Act Fourth 
Scene Second 



(Time, night of fourth day. Interior of a room 
in the palace. Present, Madeline and Nitrocris) 

Nitrocris: — 

The King of Babylon wanders about his gardens 
distracted, cursing the stars, the marble halls, 
his gods, and himself and trembles. Thou, foul 
whore of Canaan, hath stolen away his manhood 
and majesty in thy embrace of passion. His 
dream of glory, which I have for so long fostered 
and fed, vanished from him in thy first kiss. 

Madeline : — 

Wilt thou not pity me? Canst thou not see 
that I suffer, and am blameless? 

Nitrocris : — 

'Tis past pitying time, if ever pity were known 
on these plains and under these skies. Relentless 
have my fathers been, and relentless I will be in 
my condemnation of thee who by thy pert looks, 
and woman wiles, hath pulled down the dream 
palace reared in such glory and magnificence. 



100 BELSHAZZAR 

Madeline: — 

Wast thou ever a babe, an innocent babe, 
cooing up at a mother as spotless as thou? Wast 
thou ever innocent, and in blushing and tender 
girlhood wished and feared a lover's spoken love? 
For the sake of that innocence which was once 
thine, spare me those curses. I never wished it 
thus; I never thought to foil thy fair plans, nor 
lessen ambition's dream, nor to steal aught of 
glory from thy royal son. I know no greater 
glory than to be called the mother of a noble son, 
living innocently and free with my chosen lord, 
and blameless before my God. Thy eyes flash 
fire, but thou well knowest that I was led a 
slave before Belshazzar, and chosen as his wife by 
him and thee. Thy purple covers well thy virtues, 
if thou hast any, but thy vices shine through 
thy robes coldly, cruelly. 

Nitrocris: — 

Yea, thou wast led; so are multitudes. Thou 
wast denied choice; few can choose. If ever thou 
art mother, may Serah destroy thy first-born, 
destroy him ere he coos to thy delight. In all 
other things, may Nabu, the holy minister of the 
gods, blast thy wishes. I hate thy tribe, thy 
people, those Jews called holy; may thy name, 
thy race, and thy off-spring, before the eyes of men 
perish wretchedly, thou who hast stolen the 
valor, ambition, and glory from Belshazzar's 
glittering breast. 

Madeline : — 

O Babylon, thy cruel queen shames even thee! 



BELSHAZZAR 101 

Enter Arioch 

Nitrocris: — 

Minion, why seekest thou my presence unan- 
nounced? 

Arioch : — 

Queen Nitrocris, thy son, the great King, hath 
arisen from his couch whereon he was stricken, 
and goeth forth into the city with a strange and 
awful light in his eyes, unto the temples of his 
gods. He musters the strong men, and stirreth 
them to arms, sending messengers in hot haste, 
hither and thither, and all else is drowned in the 
din of warlike preparation, and naught else 
matches the glory of thy son. His face shines, 
and he sent me hither to tell thee that by the 
grace of the gods his sickness hath left him. 

Nitrocris: — 

Glory to Bel-Mardujd I must haste away. 
(Turning again to Madeline) Thou art cursed 
whether it be the curse of thy father given thee in 
thy baby -hood, or the curse of thy mother, or the 
bewitching curse of some unknown man, add 
those of Queen Nitrocris to them, and O ye gods 
of heaven, increase my curses an hundred fold! 
(Going) Thou hast balked my wishes. (Exit 
Nitrocris) 

(Arioch remains silently standing) 

Madeline : — 

Captain, wouldst thou speak aught to me? 



102 BELSHAZZAR 

Arioch: — (Looking uneasily around) 

Queen Madeline, if I mistake not, thou wast 
once betrothed to Prince Seba, and doth love him. 
Seba is my friend. 

Madeline : — 

Then thou art my friend, too? Say it, let me 
hear of a friend in this, my extremity, and the 
last blessing from my dying lips will be his. I am 
no queen; only a weak woman who is in need of a 
friend. Thou art strong, and for the sake of thy 
friend, Seba, protect me. 

Arioch: — 

Yea, I am strong, but the hate of the King 
hangs heavy over me ready to drop like a stone 
upon me. My doom is already written because 
I had a friend of Jewry called Seba, and because 
Nis-Bel hath seen us together. (Touching her 
lightly) Would to thy great God, fair lady, that 
I could aid thee and him. If I could by dying, 
death would be easy; if I could by living, the King 
himself could not kill me. (Sadly) Prince Seba 
was my only friend in Babylon, and before I knew 
that noble Prince, Babylon was a desert waste 
to me. No one spoke to the Arabian except to 
command; no one received word from him except 
to obey. At night I talked to the trees, the stars, 
the empty silence. In the day, I did naught 
else but obey Belshazzar. (Aside) Must I tell 
her this? Can her weakness bear a greater bur- 
den? 



BELSHAZZAR 103 

Madeline : — 

My friend, thou wouldst speak to me of some- 
thing, yet something else? 

Arioch : — 

Yea, fair lady, I must, since each misfortune 
draws fresh misfortunes unto itself. The King 
hath now seized thy father, the good Azariah, 
and Nis-Bel seeks to lay hands on Seba, my 
friend. 

Madeline: — (Placing hand on bosom) 

Throbbing! cease, O heart, for in thy mist-girt 
regions there are things which we who have them 
know little of, nor do we e'er suspect what heavy 
woe each heart finally must bear. Will heaven 
split my heart in twain? Why does the great 
God punish me thus, me whose only sin hath been 
a too great love for my father and the Prince? 
(Sobs) Can not Seba flee to some place of safety? 

Arioch : — 

Nay, whither? Fair lady, forgive thy friend 
the hurt which he fain would have spared thee. 
He must go hence, and soon will the King's 
anger also smite him. If it is in his power, ere 
the stroke of death fall, to aid him or thee, he 
will do it, and bless God for a friend for whom he 
can die. Farewell, lady! 

(Exit Arioch) 

Madeline : — (Slowly) 

Glory's halo, — love's sheen, — a too rosy dream 



104 BELSHAZZAR 

of happiness, all, all vanished whither? We come 
unwillingly from darkness athwart this little 
beam of light called Life, and soon go out into 
darkness again. Between the narrow limits of 
that beam, God hath set a heaven and hell, — a 
heaven of love, and a hell of suffering. Must I 
die, too? O God of Israel, speed me on my jour- 
ney ! Do not let my days be centuries of torture, 
lengthened into threefold centuries of agony. I 
have embraced a devil, the very fiend of hell, clad 
in a robe of purple, — 'twas no man of earth. His 
heart is a royal dung-hill, breeding maggots of 
lust. His splendid torque of gold hath become 
to me an iron ring, and my crown a cruel mockery. 
Ah God, how couldst thou suffer this outrage of 
purity, the mockery of thyself, and not strike 
instantly with death? 

(CURTAIN) 

Act Fourth 

Scene Third 

(Time, a little later same night. Scene is before 
the temple of Bel-Marduh. Enter Belshazzar from 
the shrine with bloody hands followed by priests) 

Belshazzar : — 

The times cried aloud for a human sacrifice, 
the death of a man. 'Tis done. (Holds out 
hands) Look, red! (To priests) Hath the god 
yet spoken aught? 



BELSHAZZAR 105 



1st Priest: — 
Nay, not yet. 



Belshazzar : — 

Go thou back to his altar, and when thou canst, 
bring me the words and the will of the gods. 

(Exit priest) 

(Looks at hand) Oh, the blood ! 

2nd Priest: — 

Those blood-stains are crimson like any other. 

Belshazzar: — (Still looking at hands) 

Not as crimson as any other, priest. An old 
man's blood is not so red as youth's. I slew him. 
It would have befitted thy office better, priest. 
He was so weak, and lay so still; the knife hardly 
did prick the skin ere he died. Now he lies there 
in pallid sleep, while the weird pale flame of 
Bel-Marduk lights the face of Azariah, prophet 
of God. He was Madeline's sire, priest. Will 
Bel-Marduk speak, thinkest thou, since my hand 
slew the Jew, and not thine? 

2nd Priest : — 

That I know not. Who would presume to 
foretell heaven's pleasure? The powers above, 
for three days, have been silent, but the heavens 
flamed with stars. 

Belshazzar : — (Awfully) 

Not all the powers have been silent. One 



106 BELSHAZZAR 

spoke. (Re-enter 1st Priest) What sayeth the 
oracle? What sayeth Bel-Marduk? 

1st Priest: — 

He hath spoken slowly and uncertainly, and 
the drift of his words which I pieced together 
over the body of the prophet, meaneth this, 
"Sacrifice not in the temples of Babylon for the 
safety of thy city, but in thine own palace give 
the gods the victim which they demand, offering 
up the woman whom thou lovest best, and who 
wearing the royal purple, sat at thy side. By this 
royal death of the dearest of thy house-hold, thou 
wilt propitiate the gods, and thy city will be 
spared thee. Do thou this, nor hesitate. " 

Belshazzar: — 

Awful ! one crime demandeth another. First the 
life of a man, O heaven, thou didst require, now 
thou must have the dearest of my palace. Moth- 
er, or Madeline? The one whom the King loveth 
best! Said that awful voice aught else? 

1st Priest: — 

Yea! "The victim must be slain by thy hand, 
O King of Babylon, and her death must be in thy 
chamber. " 

Belshazzar: — (To priests) 

Out of my sight! Begone! Back, inside, and 
quickly bury the old man! How quiet he lies! 
See that he troubles not my sleep. (Exeunt 
priests) Is it Madeline that awful voice meant 
or mother? (Staggers qff Stage) 



BELSHAZZAR 107 

Re-enter Priests 

1st Priest: — 
The royal fool! The oracle spake naught. 

2nd Priest : — 

Lied thou to the King? 

1st Priest: — 

For an excellent reason; for gold from the 
handofNis-Bel. 

2nd Priest : — 

Nis-Bel? Is he the Prince of the dark face, 
and follows there a lion at his heels? 

1st Priest: — 

Yea, the same. Of his secret purpose, I know 
naught; but gold and precious stones, and fair 
promises, he gave me to make Bel-Marduk speak 
his will as he wished it. That I did. I am cor- 
ruptible, and a priest, but who is not; only him 
who never hath been baited enough. 

2nd Priest : — 

What liars all men are! 'Tis proven thus. 
No one is incorruptible except him who hath 
never been tried. But why spoke not Bel-Marduk 
over his fires, on yonder altar, without thy aid, 
when the King slew the human sacrifice? 

1st Priest: — 
The sacrifice was a Jew, a prophet of Jehovah, 



108 BELSHAZZAR 

one Azariah, and Bel-Marduk wishes no offering 
so old, and no man from Canaan. 

(Enter Seba and Arioch) 

Arioch : — ( To priests) 

Back to your temple of blood ! (Drives them at 
the point of his sword) Look not on this fair 
night with those eyes of blood. (Exeunt priests) 
The King's soldiers seek thee, Prince, to do thee 
harm. 

Seba: — 

This short time hath wrought many changes. 
Can naught avail to snatch my Madeline back 
from the tomb of the palace? 

Arioch : — 

Comfort, my friend! There may yet be help 
for thee in thy prayers, but picture not to thyself 
a too bright future, since that hope may be a 
false hope, — yes, is a false hope. 

Re-enter 1st Priest 
(Angrily) What! thou here again? 

1st Priest: — 

I am come on a sacred mission. (To Seba) 
One of thy country-men lies bleeding on the altar 
of Bel-Marduk. His body is yet warm but he 
breatheth not. 

Seba : — (Staggers) 
Great God! 



BELSHAZZAR 109 

Arioch: — (Catches him) 

Let us go hence. Drink no more from thy 
chalice of sorrow. 

(Re-enter 2nd Priest dragging body of Azariah) 
Fiend of Hell! 

2nd Priest: — (Throws down body) 
Food for kites, not gods, — a Jew. 

Seba : — (Recognizing him) 

Azariah, the prophet, and dead! Great God, 
how life blinds us! Death softens the light and 
we see. Ah, Madeline, 'tis well that thou know- 
est naught of this, to add its weight of sorrow to 
thy already bursting breast. God, ah God! 

(Falls, and Arioch catches him) 
(CURTAIN) 



hS 



ACT FIFTH 

Scene First 

{Later on same night of Fourth Day. Scene 
shows interior of King's chamber. Present King 
and Madeline. Madeline is fast bound on a throne, 
and surrounded by flowers. Near her are censers 
with their red fires, and from them rise incense. 
Madeline's head has fallen forward upon her breast.) 

Belshazzar: — (Gazing at her) 

Now Bel-Marduk, lord of battles, thy victim 
sits bound before thee. Terrible art thou to re- 
quire a sacrifice so fair. (Picks up a silver dagger) 
This hand trembles. (Looks at dagger) Now it 
trembles more. Thou precious instrument of 
death, ne'er before hast thou tasted blood such 
as this, thy victim's. Thy wrought handle anon 
will be warm with the suffused life of her marble 
body. If thou canst, in thy coldness; feel, or 
think, or taste, thy cold blade will leap into the 
heat of life, and in thy lust, thou wilt bite deeper. 
(Moving restlessly) But why stand I here gazing 
on her, when the oracle bids her ebbing life save 
Babylon? Pity, — yes it would be pity indeed to 
sacrifice this fair girl to any god, had she not lain 
with Nis-Bel. If virgin purity were still fresh up- 
110 



BELSHAZZAR 111 

on her, the gods would have to find another 
sacrifice, or Babylon and her King perish at the 
hands of Cyrus. Ah, the mounds of her rising 
breasts, hills of delight! But, to stand here 
availeth naught. I must to my work, the hard- 
est king e'er hath done. {Louder) Jewess, thou 
lovest music. In the banquet-hall, thou didst 
say that music of the harp, and the tender strains 
of the lute please thee best. Such music is 
good to die by. {Claps hands) Strike up the 
music ! 

{Low strains float into the room, the censer-fires 
leap up afresh, and clouds of incense enwrap her 
body) 

Madeline : — {Faintly) 

King, pity! pity on the poor Jewish girl whose 
only sin was beauty. They lie, — all, — the oracle, 
— the Prince, — thou, — even the priests of Bel- 
Marduk have lied. Think well on this inhuman- 
ity, and pity me. If thou wilt not spare me, let 
me die a sacrifice to save my people. Think of 
my father's grief, the grief of an old man; how 
he will shake, and tremble, and moan. Grant 
me only one more day of life, that I may again 
see my father, that I may kiss him, and press him 
to my heart, and say farewell. 

Belshazzar: — 

Farewells have been said. Thy father died this 
night on the altar of Bel-Marduk. They have 
thrown him over the wall; they have torn off his 
fingers, a wild beast's banquet. {Stretching out 



112 BELSHAZZAR 

his hand) This hand clutcheth the dagger, this 
hand struck the blow; see, yet it is bloody, crim- 
son with his cold blood. (Pointing) The fires 
of hell blaze this night over Babylon, the very 
stars flame and wander about the skies, the moon 
is pale as death, and scarcely can be seen, and 
only thy death can propitiate the gods. The 
oracle hath spoken thus. 

Madeline : — 

Belshazzar, I am so young to die. The wild 
blood pulses and sings through me. I am in thy 
power, so spare me for thyself, for my body that 
I might live. Choose thou, for sacrifice some 
other, someone who wishes to die, someone op- 
pressed by the weariness of a soul. 

Belshazzar: — 

Thy pleadings weaken my purpose, yet they 
avail thee naught. Thou couldst never love me. 
Wherefore wast thou cold towards thy lord on 
thy nuptial night? 

Madeline : — 

I could not be otherwise. Love hath no other 
reason than itself. I loved a Prince of Judah, and 
that was a fatal love; but hear me, Belshazzar, 
true love is very cheap to be bargained with 
death. (Raising herself up as far as possible) 
Strike, O King, since thou must, and strike quickly 
and I will bless that hand of murder which sends 
me quickly from this throne of pain to the arms of 
my father. Quick, pause not to let me see the 
gleaming steel. Strike! 



BELSHAZZAR 113 

Belshazzar : — 

Willing art thou to prate in thine own favor, 
even in the presence of death. Listen to the 
strains of the lute. {Laying bare her breast) 
White! O dagger, a fitting morsel for thee. Bite 
thou deep and slowly, that she may feel herself 
die, and sinking into the charnels of death, look 
back from the gates of Hell upon the new splendor 
of Belshazzar, King, and a Babylon delivered. 
(Presses the dagger slowly into her breast) Hence, 
thou beggar, thou beggar of life. 

Madeline : — (Dying) 

Anon, — more tears will be poured into the 
chalice, — the chalice of time, and oft kings, — 
kings, Belshazzar, have wept. Jehovah, pity, — 
pity— (Dies) 

Belshazzar: — (Standing back to look at body) 

Good! Warmer in death than life towards the 
King of Babylon. 

(Draws his mantle over the Jewess, and goes to the 
window. A meteor flashes in the sky. Din and 
shouting are heard without the wall.) 

The priests of Marduk lied. Dead she lies, yet 
the heavens foretell havoc and destruction. 
(Walks back and looks at body) Where is gone the 
glow of that warm body, — whither fled? She 
lies there so cold and white, too white. (Sudden- 
ly) The King of Babylon hath been made the 
butt of an awful jest. (Rushing out) I swear 
by heaven and earth to drive my sword through 
Nis-Bel, the arch-fiend of blackest hell. 
(CURTAIN) 



114 BELSHAZZAR 

Act Fifth 

Scene Second 

(Time, same night. Scene is on the battlements 
surrounding Babylon. Alarums, clash of arms, 
fires flash. The curtain rises on three soldiers 
dragging in Seba, and followed by Nis-Bel) 

Nis-Bel : — ( To soldiers) 

Stay! Here! that column, bind him fast to it. 
(Soldiers lash him to it) (To Seba) Thus, thou 
must be self-punished by the real arrows of thy 
Persian friends. Nis-Bel only falleth into the 
world's way of justice. These hissing arrows 
will soon end thee. Then a dainty feast for worms 
if worms eat Jews, — a doubt. 

Seba : — (Struggling) 

Great God, remember thy servant! 

Nis-Bel : — (Mocking) 

Useless struggles, Prince. Thy God is impo- 
tent to save, powerless to damn. Thou really 
believest in thy religion, where the dead rise? 
Gettest thou not enough life in this existence? 
Then, 'twere well to die. 

Seba : — 

Inhuman dog ! the sons of Israel are not all dead 
yet, and still there is justice somewhere in the 
world. 

Nis-Bel: — (Striding before Seba) 

Jew, if in thy position, thou canst move thy 



BELSHAZZAR 115 

head, look about thee, and thou mayest be in- 
spired by this glorious scene of conflict. I wish 
thee joy in it. 'Tis natural, this strife. Ho! 
the very elements teach us war, and make us 
maniacs or gods. Justice, saidst thou? Azariah, 
thy prophet is dead. Hearestthat? Thy prophet, 
who held lore like an old wine skin, and was so 
hardened that one thought him full, that very 
Jew died on a pagan altar. Hearest that? Then 
where is aught of justice under the sun? (An 
arrow whizzes by) They will be thy little friends, 
those little winged bees. Mind lest they siting 
thee. (Going) Thou hast been a good Jew, and 
if 'twere my wont, I'd go below to mourn for thee. 
Thou wouldst have been better, — far better, — 
if thou couldst have named thy sire. 

(Exit Nis-Bel) 

Seba : — 

That hell-hound, Nis-Bel, to leave me thus! 
I saw his wolf's teeth gleaming. 

Enter Belshazzar 

Shouts Below : — 

War ! war ! war ! death ! havoc ! death ! 

Belshazzar : — 

Woe like unto this ne'er before hath been, nor 
such a night within the memory of mortal man. 
Destruction rides through the air on wings of 
terror, and the fell night terrifies with promises of 
doom. These winged arrows sing, havoc. Those 



116 BELSHAZZAR 

shouts below cry, death. (Seeing Seba) About 
thee, is flying death. Thy Persian friends are 
likely to prove thy executioners. May est thou 
die slowly, Jew. Who left thee thus, thus as 
I would have placed thee? 

Seba: — 

Nis-Bel bound me. King, he nourished to life 
this fell night, when heaven and earth are at 
strife; this havoc; this fear; he made possible this 
world of madmen; these forces of destruction; 
these brainless and insensate demons whistling 
out to thee and me, Death. 

Belshazzab: — 

I seek him with the sword. Whither fled he? 

Seba: — 

To safety. God of heaven, blast this earth 
with fire, send the King of Babylon quick to hell, 
let not another king breathe on this fair earth, to 
despoil innocence! Suffer him not to live! O 
God, break these chains, that I may, with these 
bare hands kill Belshazzar! 

Enter Messenger 

Messengeb : — ( To King) 

The walls are pierced. Death, in his spectral 
robes hovers over the city. 

Belshazzar: — 

The palace guards, despatch! Away! 

(Exit Messenger) 



BELSHAZZAR 117 

{To Seba) If the darts of Cyrus kill thee not, 
the sword of the King will. 

Enter 2nd Messenger 

2nd Messenger: — {To King) 

Death, in his spectral robes, stops at the gates of 
the palace. 

Belshazzar : 

Lead against them the Ethiops. Away ! 

{Exit Messenger) 

Enter Busalosser wounded 

Busalosser: — {Falling against a column breath- 
less) 
They storm thy hundred brazen gates, they 

press through the breach, and strike well in the 

dark. I die, O King, in thy service. 

Belshazzar: — 

Nay not in my service. Thy place is within 
the breach. Die by Belshazzar's sword. {Kills 
him) 

Cyrus will find Babylon a shambles. 

Seba : — {Faintly) 

That! Humanity is no longer human. 

Enter Arioch and faces King 

Belshazzar: — 

Where are thy soldiers, captain? 



118 BELSHAZZAR 

Arioch : — (Cutting Seba loose) 
Dead! 

(Seba springs down, quickly seizes dead Busa- 
lossers sword and faces King. Fresh showers of 
arrows, renewed din) 

Seba : — 

Hell hound of Babylon ! 

(They fight) 

Belshazzar : — 

O fling on earth, ye demons dark your mad- 
ness, hate, and fell despair! Accurst, accurst, 
thy doom ! 

Seba : — (Striking) 

Thy curses, fiend, I hurl again ! 

Belshazzar -.—(Wounded) 

Have I at last met the god of fate on my battle- 
ments? 

Seba : — (Slaying him) 

Avaunt, foul fiend! hence, get thee to the pit 
of hell ! (King dies) 

Re-enter Nis-Bel 

Nis-Bel: — (Coldly, pointing to King) 

Thy work? His dagger killed thy Madeline, 
thou him, and now thou must die. (They fight 
and Seba is slain) 



BELSHAZZAR 119 

Seba: — {Dying) 
Ah, Madeline! (Dies) 

(Nis-Bel faces Arioch who, being unarmed hurls 
himself over the battlements) 

Arioch : — (Jumping) 

I will never die by that hand. 

Nis-Bel: — (Looking over) 

Good! dashed to pieces. I have helped many 
men to death but none before so willingly. (Stands 
back and gloats over the dead) Death here, 
death there, yonder, above, below, everywhere, 
and among the dying stands Nis-Bel, the Prince. 
Who hath done this? Look on me, and be 
answered. (Kicks Seba's body) Thou art the 
cause. A man's love, refused by a woman, hath 
thus stained thy walls, Babylon. Day of Wrath, 
how I welcome thee! Thou comest to crown the 
success of my vengeance, my vengeance that work- 
eth like fate. Wrath of Asshur? Nay! Of Jehovah? 
Nay! Of Nis-Bel? Yea, his wrath hath 
done this. No power of heaven began this work, 
nor of hell. 'Twas begun on earth, conceived of 
in the inner strife of this breast, atoned for by the 
blood of these lifeless clopls. This breast was 
made thrall to hate, and its ravenous fires burned 
brightly, destroying love, pity, everything except 
a great desire for vengeance. Now I have it. 
(Looks over the battlements) They pour in, wave 
upon wave, cohort after cohort. Asshur! how 
their chariots jam. Yonder fools fighting in the 
breach know not that here lies that purple fool 



120 BELSHAZZAR 

who ruled over them. (Stands back and kicks 
Belshazzar's body) The folly of great pride! 
Fool, not to use cunning as well as power, so there 
he lies, — clay. On thy lips, in that banquet-hall, 
were these words, "death shall die." True, 
yet, — (Persian arrow strikes him and he falls) 
(Dying) Wine! I faint. I die. I fell from 
heaven, a heaven of vengeance, a feast of blood, 
at the silver fountains of the gods. Yonder 
cometh, — cometh, — the Persian, — and, — and the 
darkness. (Dies) 

(The Persians swarm upon the walls) 

(CURTAIN) 



OCT 16 1912 



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